A Change of Scenery
by Miss NeverWinter
Summary: When three friends find themselves in an alternate universe, chaos breaks out. Jess discovers a deep secret, Carly makes up her mind about the Akatsuki, and Max finds love. Told you it was chaos. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream.
1. Introduction

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // This is just a story that I got inspiration from, "Where are we Again?" by Datenshi Yamashita. I seriously recommend reading that story, and its sequel, "Where are we Again? 2 The Reunion" Well, now for the disclaimer!

Disclaimer // The anime Naruto does not belong to me. It probably never will. The characters Carly and Jess are me and my best friend. Another friend of mine in the story is Max. I play the person of Carly. The idea of people coming from our world into the Naruto world is full property of Datenshi Yamashita or whoever he/she got it off of.

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Jess and Carly were sitting under the staircase. _Their_ staircase. They always sat there at recess. Ever since Carly began hanging out with Jess anyway. She just decided to sit with her after ITA one day. (A:N // ITA – Information Technology Applications – Computer class)

Carly was the quiet one. Quiet compared to Jess that is. She has medium length, dark reddish, purplish, brownish hair that is worn in bunches that covers her ears. Intelligent hazel eyes can be seen on a caring and gentle face. She is often mistaken to be a shy and modest girl. Just don't say that when she's in her 'I-don't-give-a-damn-what-you-think-about-me' or 'you-say-one-more-thing-and-I'll-hurt-you' moods. A past skateboarder, she's the natural punk, and the original hippie. Another thing, Carly's the all-knowing-anime-freak so nobody likes her that much.

Jess is a bit like Carly. She's a natural punk, with long, gingerish, brownish coloured hair pulled into a pony tail at her neck. Her face shows defiance, and a 'damn right!' attitude. Carly and Jess are best friends and the ultimate Harry Potter fans.

Carly's the Naruto fan, Jess a tiny bit, calling Sasuke the, "emo kid".

Sitting under the staircase under B block and near C block, they always talked about whatever popped into their minds.

"Hey Jess, have you ever seen the anime Naruto?" Carly was asking the question she asks everyone. "Is that the one with the emo kid in it?" Carly thought for a while. "You mean Sasuke right? Yeah, that's it." Jess was sitting on the ground, leaning against one of the poles that keep the stairs up.

"Seen an episode or two. Never got around to watching anymore. I know _you_ watch it a lot though, being the anime freak you are." Jess answered Carly, knowing what she was going to say next. "And yes, I do like Sasuke a bit. If we ever fall into the Naruto world, I would so fall for him." Carly laughed. "Well, I think I'd fall for Shikamaru, the genius one, or Kiba, the dog boy. They're really awesome." Jess nodded and said, "Rad" just as the bell for fourth period went off. "Well, see you this weekend at my place!" Carly called over her shoulder, picking up her bag and heading to class.

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Jess and Carly were listening to some music in Carly's room. It was a sleepover, celebrating the end of school for the year. Every year, Carly had some sort of party with her friends on this day. "I love this song!" Carly said, turning up the volume on the song, "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" by My Chemical Romance. Jess started laughing, and Carly started soon after.

All of a sudden, there was a large crash from outside. The girls ran to the street and saw a large hole in the middle of the road. Leaning over the side, Jess said, "What the hell? What's this?" Carly came to join her, only to be pushed in by someone.

A few minutes later, Carly landed on something, or rather in something. It was a bush. She stood up and jumped out of the bush. "Ow. Note to self, do not attempt to sit on spiky bush. It hurts. A lot."

Jess suddenly jumped out of the bush as well. "Carly! What the hell happened?" Jess was walking over to Carly, then stopped and stared. "Oh. My. God. What the hell happened to you?!" Carly was staring at Jess with the same look on her face. "I was just about to ask you the same question! You look so different!" Carly and Jess looked down at what the other was staring at, gasped, then raced around trying to find a mirror. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god! Jess, we've been animated!" Carly suddenly sat down, and Jess accidentally tripped over her. "Oops! Sorry Carly!" Then both girls started laughing.

Then Carly stopped. She grabbed Jess's arm, saying, "Jess. I know where we are. We're in the town of Konoha, in the anime Naruto!" Jess just looked at Carly. "You're kidding me, right? I'm gonna wake up any minute, I know it." Carly shook her head and stood up again. "Come on, I'll prove it too you!"

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"Oh my god. I can't believe it! We're actually in one of my favourite animes!" Carly was so happy, you could see it in her step. She was bouncing along as if she had just won the lottery. But of course, Carly could never win the lottery. She had rotten luck. "We'd better keep it secret for now, though. Who knows what'll happen if word gets out." Carly slowed down and nodded at Jess's statement. Looking at her feet, she walked next to Jess down the empty road. Or so they thought. Walking around the corner, Carly came face to face with...

**Ooh! I wonder who I run into! Sorry Jess, if I'm seeming a bit too... Favourite-y. If I'm writing more about me instead of both of us. I'm gonna write heaps more about you! I promise! –hands all you cookies- Thanks for reading! And don't forget to review! I'll give you a cookie if you do! –waves plate of cookies around you- Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	2. Welcome to Team 13!

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Max is another one of my friends. Jess wanted him to be involved as well, soyeah. I added him.

Flashback // _Carly slowed down and nodded at Jess's statement. Looking at her feet, she walked next to Jess down the empty road. Or so they thought. Walking around the corner, Carly came face to face with..._

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Walking around the corner, Carly came face to face with... None other than Kakashi Hatake. Kakashi looked down and helped Carly to her feet. "Umm... Sorry about that. I should have been looking where I was going. Are you alright?" Taking Kakashi's outstretched hand, Carly stood up, saying in a bright voice, "Oh I'm fine! I'm Carly by the way, and this is my best friend Jess. We just moved here from, umm, Suna-gakure."

Kakashi nodded. "Okay. I'm Kakashi Hatake. Have you been to the Hokage to announce your arrival yet?" Jess and Carly shook their heads at the same time. "We don't know where the Hokages office is." Jess said. "Oh, alright then, I'll take you there."

So Kakashi lead Carly and Jess to the Hokages building, knocking on the door and leading them in. "Hokage-sama, the new arrivals from Suna are here to see you." Kakashi said, addressing Tsunade. "Okay, whatever. Come here, girls." Tsunade said, turning to face them.

Carly and Jess walked over to her desk and sat down at two chairs opposite Tsunade. "I've been expecting you for a while. Carly-Beth and Jessica, am I right?" Carly gritted her teeth at being called by her full name, but nodded all the same. Jess nodded too. Laughing at Carly, Jess said, "Carly doesn't like being called by her full name. Everyone just calls her Carly." The Hokage nodded.

"Yes, yes, whatever. So, I guess you want to see your records? Make sure nothing's been messed up? We've been having a bit of trouble with new arrivals for the past month or so." Carly nodded, taking the files from Tsunade. "Thank you, Hokage-sama." She said, smiling at Tsunade. "Well, I'll leave you two in peace for a while. I want you finished looking at those files by the time I get back in ten minutes.

Jess grabbed the file labeled, "Jessica – Suna resident" from Carly and opened it to look at her information. "Hey Carly, what does all this mean? I have absolutely no idea what a 'genin' is. Or 'tai-jutsu'."

Carly leaned over and explained everything to Jess. "Okay, basically, you've graduated from the Ninja Academy, and become a Genin, the lowest level a ninja can be besides an Academy Student. You specialize in tai-jutsu, which is hand-to-hand combat." Jess whistled in amazement. "Rad" she said, closing her folder. "Okay, what does yours say Carly?"

Carly opened her file and her mouth dropped open. "Woah." Was all she could say at first. "I'm the top Genin student in my year that graduated from the Ninja Academy. I specialize in gen-jutsu, which is a control-over-the-mind type of thing. I'm commonly known in Suna as the Needle Master!"

Carly closed her file and stared at the cover for a while. She checked to see if it said her name on the yellow-ish paper. "Carly-Beth – Suna resident" was printed in black lettering, the same as Jess.

The door opened, and Tsunade came back in, followed by a man. "Carly, Jess, this is Iruka. He's going to be in charge of your team. You are now the best of 'Team 13'. The final member of your team should be arriving shortly."

As Tsunade finished, Jess burst out, "OH MY GOD, CARLY, HE LOOKS LIKE JAMES! CARLY! IT'S JAMES! JAMES!" She ran over and started hugging 'James'. "Uh, I'm Iruka. Not James. Who ever James is..." mumbled a nervous Iruka. He looked over at Carly. She was rolling around on the floor laughing at Jess. "Ha ha ha! Jess, James wouldn't be here, of all places! You can let go of Iruka-sensei now!"

Jess reluctantly released Iruka from her grasp and sat down on her chair again. Iruka looked at Jess like she was crazy. He shook his head, and walked over to a chair by the wall, sitting down on it.

"Well, your companion should be here any minute." Tsunade said, looking at the clock. "Uh, Hokage-sama? Who is our companion?" Carly asked. As if on queue, there was a knock on the door. Tsunade smiled and opened the door. "Max." She said simply. "MAX!" shouted Carly and Jess. "Yo!" Max walked into the room and stood near Carly. "How'd you get here, Max?" Carly asked him. "Same way as you did, I think." He replied. Jess came up and gave Max a hug. "Missed you! Haven't seen you for ages. Rad hair, too." She said.

"Well, now that you're all together, I think it's time that you all started training." Tsunade said. Winking at Iruka, she whispered to him, "Good luck. You'll need it."

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**Yay! Max is involved now! Aren't you happy, Jess? It's gonna be fun at training. Iruka's gonna have hell. And I added the fangirl-i-ish-ness in as well, like you wanted me too. Have fun reading! –hands Jess a cookie- That's for reviewing! Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	3. The Bell Training

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Thank you everyone for reviewing! I'm glad that you like my story. Anyways, this chapter is about our first day of training with Iruka. Hope you have as much fun reading as I did writing!

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Max, Jess and Carly followed Iruka to Training Grounds 3. "Okay, Team 13, time to start training." Iruka said, holding three bells out. "Your goal is to get these bells of me. You have until noon. START!"

Carly jumped into a group of bushes. She looked over to where Jess and Max stood staring at the space she had disappeared too. Carly rolled her eyes. They had no idea what they are meant to be doing. Using the replication jutsu, her clone grabbed a kunai from a pouch on her leg and crept around behind Iruka. Suddenly she charged out and attempted to attack him. Iruka spun his leg around and tripped her from behind. Carly's fallen body turned into a wooden log. Iruka suddenly found three sebon needles embedded in his chest, and he too turned into a wooden log.

Jess and Max were just staring at the battle. Suddenly, Carly jumped out of cover and ran over to her friends. "What the hell are you doing just standing there?! Come and help! If we're gonna get the bells we need to use teamwork!"

Carly whipped out a kunai and deflected several shuriken thrown by Iruka. She gave Max a poke in the face. It seemed to take him out of his daze, for he immediately poked her back between her shoulder blades. She smiled and ran away, followed by Jess and Max.

When the three were safely concealed in the trees, Carly listened for Iruka. Putting her ear to the trunk of the tree they were leaning on, she continued to look at several places, until she decided where she would attack.

Iruka charged through the trees, ready to attack Jess. Closing her eyes, Carly focused all her chakra on Iruka's right hand. He suddenly stopped attempting to attack Jess, who had been dodging with accuracy and even managed to attack him herself. He fell to his knees, and Max wondered what was going on.

'Why does Carly have her eyes closed?' he asked himself. 'Why is Iruka on his knees, mumbling to himself?' He wished he knew the answers. Carly suddenly opened her eyes. Seeing Jess and Max staring at Iruka, she whispered to them, "I'm making him re-live the night he lost his parent's, twelve years ago. It's a bit harsh, but the first thing I could think of."

As Jess continued to stare at Iruka, Max walked up and took the bells off Iruka's belt. He handed one to Carly, and one to Jess. Carly put her hands on Iruka's shoulder and forced some of her chakra into him, knowing it'd stop the gen-jutsu.

"Iruka-sensei? Did we over do it? Are you okay?" Jess was kneeling by Iruka, one hand on his shoulder. "I'm fine... Carly, your fantastic at gen-jutsu. That... It seemed like the very night it happened..." He stood up, smiling at them all. "It didn't turn out the way I would have planned, but you got the bells all the same."

Jumping up and down, Jess seemed very happy that they had passed. Max just walked around behind Carly, hoping it would annoy her. She just shrugged and poked Max in the face again. (A:N // It really annoys him. I found that out a couple of weeks ago!) "Well, it took much less time then I had planned, so why don't I treat you three to some ramen to celebrate?"

Jess walked over to Carly to ask her what ramen was. "Ramen is noodles with eggs, cabbage, prawns and other stuff. It's a common food in this anime. I hope we meet Naruto if we go to Ichiraku's Ramen Stand." She whispered to Jess.

Iruka pointed to the village in the distance. "To Ichiraku's!" he shouted, walking away. Jess, Carly and Max all decided to follow.

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Iruka waved them in the sit down at the counter. "So, order anything you like. I'll pay for it. As long as you don't eat like Naruto that is." As if on queue, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura walked into the store. Carly tapped Jess and the shoulder and told her to turn around.

"Guess who's here." She whispered with a smirk. Jess turned around and stared at Sasuke. "SASUKE!" Suddenly, Sasuke was on the ground, with a very clingy Jess hugging him.

Looking at Jess like she was a monster, Sakura pulled Jess off of him. Sasuke stood up, glared at a very happy Jess, and sat down at the far stool. "Sasuke, are you all right?" asked a shy Sakura. "...Hn..." was the only answer she got. Taking it as a yes, Sakura sat down next to him, and ordered some ramen. Naruto had already begun stuffing his face with noodles, so he only just noticed the three new genin and their teacher.

"Hey! Iruka-sensei! Are these the new genin you were talking about?" he asked. Iruka looked up at Naruto from his bowl of ramen. "Yes. This is Carly, Jess and Max." he said, pointing at each member of Team 13 in turn. Carly, Jess and Max all waved, though Jess a little stiffly. It seemed Sakura had caused a bit of pain when she pulled Jess off Sasuke. Sasuke looked at Carly and Max, then went back to thinking. Sakura waved to Carly, smiled at Max, and totally ignored Jess.

Patting the seat next to her, Sakura motioned for Carly to sit down.

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**So. Third chapter finished. How did you like it? Too fast? Not fast enough? Give me your opinion and review. Please? You're also welcome to give me some ideas if you want. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	4. A New Home

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Thanks to all you people who reviewed! Anyways, if you read the last chapter, Sakura hates Jess, and is trying to befriend Carly. Max is just standing by. For now.

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Later, after they were leaving Ichiraku's Ramen Stand, Jess was firing questions at a tired looking Carly. "What did she want? Did she ask about me? What's her problem anyway? What did you talk about? Does she like Sasuke or something?" Carly sighed and answered all her questions. "She didn't want anything, she totally acted as though you didn't exist, she's just stuck up, we talked about our jutsu types, and she does like Sasuke."

Carly was really tired. Yawning, she looked up at the stars. They had wandered around town for a bit, where they had met the Sand Siblings. Gaara seemed to have a girl with amber eyes and black hair following him around a lot, then they had gone back to Ichiraku's Ramen Stand.

Iruka had left them at about three to do some paper work for Tsunade.

Max was walking along silently for once. Then he decided to poke Carly between the shoulder blades again. She stopped in her tracks, turned to face Max, and threw a sebon needle at him. It missed. "Damn... You poke me again and I really will hit you!" As well as being tired, she was grumpy. Too many surprises in one day made her like this. "I wonder where we're staying." Jess asked aloud, trying to get Carly and Max to stop fighting.

As if God had answered her prayers, a man carrying a scroll suddenly appeared in front of the trio. "Hokage-sama wishes you to know that there is a vacant house waiting for you just down the road. It is yours until you leave." He handed Jess the scroll then disappeared.

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Jess, Max and Carly walked into their new home. The scroll that the man had given Jess had contained the house address, the house key, and 2000 ¥en. Racing upstairs, Carly and Jess explored the bedrooms.

One was dark purple with black curtains and a large four poster bed with black covers, a bedside table and a lamp. Another was black with black with silver curtains and a large four poster bed with silver covers, a bedside table and a lamp. The last room was painted green with white curtains and a large four poster bed with white covers, a bedside table and a lamp.

"Dibs on the purple room!" Carly shouted. "Dibs on the black room!" Jess joined in. "What's going on up there?" Max said from downstairs. "Come and see for yourself!" Carly shouted down at him.

Sighing, Max came up the stairs. He stared at the grinning girls, each sitting in the doorway of their rooms on dib. He stared at the last vacant room. "A GREEN AND WHITE room? You seriously don't expect me to live in that do you?" Max said, looking at the girls. The girls just nodded, grins still plastered on their faces, though both were about to crack up laughing.

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It was morning, and Jess and Max were waiting for Carly to get up. Max was sitting at the table, and Jess was searching the kitchen for breakfast.

Up in her room, Carly was getting out of bed. There were no other clothes in the house so she had just slept in her long black pants and yellow shirt. Standing up, she found a mirror, took her hair out of it's bunches and began to run her fingers through it, trying to get all the knots out of it. Downstairs, there was a knock on the door. Max went to go answer it. Opening the door, he came to the faces of four people. "Carly! We've got visitors!" he shouted up the stairs, not knowing how to greet these people.

Carly came running down, still tying her hair up into her trademark bunches. She came to the door to help Max greet the people. Seeing who they were, she smiled, expecting something out of this. "Good morning! I'm Carly, and this is Max. Jess is over there in the kitchen." She said, holding her hand out to the only female member of the group.

"Hey, I'm Tenten." The female said. Carly had known this, but let it drop. No one was supposed to know that they had dropped from another world into an anime. "This is Neji, Gai-sensei and Rock Lee-" Tenten was suddenly interrupted by the over-active boy in green spandex.

"Good morning Carly! Welcome to Konoha! I'm Rock Lee! The Beautiful Green Beast of the Village Hidden in the Leaves!" he shouted, giving Carly a bone-crushing hug. "Nice to meet you." Carly said, gasping for breath.

"What's going on over here? Oh." Jess had given up on searching and had decided to see what all the commotion was about. "Jess, this is Rock Lee, Tenten, Neji and Gai-sensei." Carly introduced, pointing out each member as she said their name. "Hn. Here." Neji suddenly said, thrusting a basket full of fruit into Carly's hands. "Oh. Thanks Neji!" she said, giving him a one-armed hug.

Neji seemed a little surprised by this, but let Carly hug him. Carly handed the basket to Max, who went and put it down on the table. He sat down, and Jess and Carly let the group into their new sitting room. "So. Any particular reason you came to our house so early in the morning?" Jess asked Tenten. "Oh, we just wanted to say, 'hi and welcome to the neighborhood'. And, we wanted to know if you needed a tour of the village." Tenten said. "Oh, no thanks. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto showed us around yesterday." Carly said. "Okay then. Well, we'd really best be going. We've got training to do!" Tenten declared.

Jess stood up and showed them to the door. "See you guys later then!" She called after them. "Well they were nice, don't you think Max?" Carly asked. "Yeah you could say that."

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**So. Carly, Jess and Max have meet Gai, Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Neji, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Tenten and Lee. What will happen in the next chapter? Keep reading to find out! Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	5. More Aquantinces!

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Man I've been updating fast lately. I wrote and posted three chapters in one day! All in a matter of 4 to 5 hours. -shakes head- I must be really good at writing. Or I just like this story. Anyway, on with the story!

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter : **

Anou – Um / Uh

Baka – Idiot, fool, moron, stupid

Teme – Bastard

Gomen - Sorry

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It was about 9 o'clock when Iruka turned up on the trio's doorstep. "C'mon guys! Time for training!" he shouted through the door. Jess opened the door and walked out to stand with Iruka. Carly and Max came through next, Carly locking the door behind her.

"So where are we going today, Iruka-sensei?" Jess asked. "The same area, but more secluded. I'm going to be teaching you how to walk up trees with out using your hands." He replied. Carly stopped in her tracks. "You're gonna teach us that? Today?" she said, nearly yelling. "Yes and yes. You got the bells off of me pretty fast yesterday, so I think that you should be ready for this."

Iruka led them to Training Ground 3 again, but walked further into the trees. "Okay, now focus your chakra at the bottom of your feet and attempt to walk up one of these trees." He said, pointing to three, very tall trees. Carly, feeling confident, did what he said and tried walking up one of them. She got up a few steps then fell down. Hard.

"Ow..." she said, rubbing her butt. Determined to get to the top, she focused more chakra and tried again, this time getting half way up the tree. Just as she was about to fall down, she took out a kunai and marked her place. Then she grabbed a branch to keep from falling. "Eep." Was all she could say, looking at the ground below her.

Suddenly, she was on the ground, in Iruka's arms. A blush crept up her face. "Umm... Can you put me down?" She asked. Iruka put her down. She looked up at the mark she had made in her tree. "Woah. I got up pretty high." She said. Iruka nodded. "Jess got up to about where you did, and Max another three metres or so." He commented. "And how long ago was this, Sensei?" Carly asked him. "About five minutes." He replied.

Carly turned back to Jess, who was once again attempting to get higher on her tree.

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After each member of Team 13 had achieved the fete of getting all the way to the top of their respective trees, they decided to call it a day. They had been training for about six hours, meaning it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. "Hey, let's go buy some stuff for our house. It's pretty boring, and we need more clothes and food." Carly said. "Okay, great idea!" was Jess's reply. Max poked Carly between the shoulder blades again. Carly spun around and tried to hit him with a fist full of chakra. "MAX YOU TEME!" Carly _really_ wasn't getting along with Max lately. Luckily for him, he had dodged Carly's attack and was now laughing, several paces away. "Ha ha ha!"

( A:N // By now, I'm really bored. I've even stuck a sign to my door saying, "I LIKE TO SPIN" in bright pink and blue letters. Soyeah. I'm just trying to make some humour. And not succeeding. Dx)

Max took a step back and collided with somebody. "Huh?" Max turned around. A girl with short, raven black hair had fallen when she had collided with Max. "Hinata! Are you okay?" A young boy wearing a grey jumper and a dog came running up to help the girl to her feet. To Max he said, "You should really be looking where you're going! Hinata-chan could have been hurt!" Max looked at Carly, hoping for some help.

"Hi, I'm Carly, this is Jess and this is Max. We're new to town, and we're sorry about Max's clumsiness. I think I've seen you around before, you're name's Kiba, right?" Carly said, standing next to Max. The boy nodded. "So Carly-san, have you and your friends been shown around town yet?" Kiba offered. "Yeah, Sasuke-san, Sakura-san and Naruto-san showed us around yesterday." She replied. Nodding again, Kiba turned around. "Hey Shino! Come meet the new rookies!" he shouted to an invisible person.

At the sound of his name, a boy walked up to stand next to Kiba and Hinata. "Shino, this is Carly, Jess and Max. They've just moved here from...?" Kiba stopped short of his sentence, remembering that they hadn't yet explained where they'd came from. "Suna. We've moved here from Suna." Jess hurriedly said.

"A-Anou... Max-san... Gomen, for b-bumping into you..." Hinata trailed off. "It's okay... Hinata was it?" Max replied. It was the slightest bit obvious he liked Hinata by the blush creeping up his face.

"Well. Carly-san, Max-san and Jess-san, would you guys like to come to the annual Ninja Sleepover this Saturday?" Kiba asked. "There's an annual Ninja Sleepover?" Carly asked, surprised. "Yep. We started it a few years ago. We've been having one every year since then, and this year it's my time to host it. So would you guys like to come?" Kiba explained, once again inviting them. "Well, sure. We'd love to come." Jess, Carly and Max said at the same time. Then they all burst out laughing. "We're doing that a lot lately aren't we?" Carly said to Jess. "Yep!" she replied.

Kiba laughed too. "Well, we'll see you guys on Saturday then. Ja ne!" Kiba, Hinata and Shino turned and went back to shopping, or whatever they were doing.

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**Meh. This took me about three days to write. It didn't turn out how I would've liked, but anywho. Next chapter : Shopping. Jess, Carly and Max go shopping for some stuff for their new house. Pretty boring, I know, butyeah. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	6. Shopping

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // I'm running outta things to say in here. Soyeah, this is the chapter where the trio goes shopping. It's longer than the others, but it has a funny part. I think. The next story, _The Sleepover Party_ is going to be A LOT bigger, so prepare for some reading. A lot of reading. Now on with the story! Again...

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After saying goodbye to Kiba, Hinata and Shino; who hadn't really said anything at all, Jess, Max and Carly decided to go shopping. Then they remembered that they had no money. "Wait! Wasn't there ¥2000 in the envelope that we got the house key out of?" Jess suddenly said. "Hey yeah, there was! I'll run home and get it!" Carly offered, and ran back to the house.

When she arrived, she took the key out of her pocket, unlocked the door and raced to the kitchen. She remembered that she had hidden it under the pear in the fruit basket that Team Gai had given them. Stupid, yes, but there was no where else to hide it.

She found the fruit basket on the kitchen bench and lifted the pear. Seeing the notes, she reached for them and put them in her pocket. She then raced outside again, locking the door behind her and putting the key in her pocket with the money.

As Carly walked back to where she had left Jess and Max, she saw a large group of girls squabbling over something. Thinking that Sasuke was somewhere at the bottom of it, she smiled and kept walking.

Carly saw Max standing a few feet away. "Hey, where's Jess?" she asked, standing next to him. "Oh, some friends of hers came and took her away to do 'girl stuff'. So, go ask them." Now, Carly was confused. "But Max, _Jess doesn't have any friends in Konoha!_' she said dangerously. "For all we know, she could be being bombarded with questions about where we came from and stuff. Jess hardly knows anything about this world!"

With that, Carly began running to the most likely place possible, the Hokage Faces. (Don't ask why, Carly AKA me, just has this weird obsession thing with The Hokage Faces xD.)

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**With Jess**

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Jess was tied up in a chair facing the wall. Behind her stood all of Sasukes fangirls. _All_ of them. "Bet you're happy now, aren't you?" asked one of the girls. "About what?" Jess replied quickly. "I'm shopping with my friends, then you show up, drag me away, and tie me up in some sort of mountain with faces on it! How the hell do you expect me to be happy, bitches?" The girls looked at each other.

"You don't know, do you?" came a familiar voice. "Hey! I know you! You're Sakura!" Jess said, craning her neck to see the pink girl. "Yeah, I'm Sakura. Big deal! I just want to know why the hell Sasuke-kun likes you over me!" Sakura spat, venom clearly showing in her voice. "Sasuke... He's the emo one, right? Well, at least I don't go chasing after him calling, 'Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun!'" Jess snapped. Sakura seemed taken back, then she regained her posture. "He's not emo! Just... lonely! And I don't do that!" she yelled, preparing to hit Jess.

"Well, I'm outta here." Jess said, standing up and walking to the cave entrance. The girls, including Sakura, were stunned. "H-how the HELL did you get out of the ropes??" Sakura exclaimed. "There were ropes?" Jess inquired, dumbfounded. "Uhh, YEAH!" the girls yelled together.

Jess just shrugged, jumped down to the ground, and began walking off, Sakura and the girls just staring at her. They made no attempt to follow.

As Jess walked, she came across the remainder of Team 7, Naruto and Sasuke. She decided to stay and chat since she had no idea where Carly and Max were.

"Hey Sasuke and ... Naruto, isn't it?" Sasuke looked at her, and surprisingly said, "Hey, Jess-chan." Naruto jumped up from the ground and yelled, "HEY JESS-CHAN!!!"

While Jess was attempting to get her hearing back, Naruto declared, "I'm gonna go find Sakura-chan. She's been gone a long time." Sasuke just rolled his eyes, then continued staring at Jess.

Jess noticed. "What? Is there something wrong with me or something?" Sasuke blushed slightly, and looked away. She came over and sat down opposite him. "So.. What's up?" she asked, attempting to strike a conversation. "Nothing much.." Sasuke mumbled.

Suddenly, he pulled a necklace from his pocket. "I, err, found this on the ground yesterday. Do you want it?" he asked. It was a simple silver chain with a circle pendent on it. The pendent was filled with swirling lines and small diamonds. "Oh rad! That's an awesome necklace!" Jess exclaimed, taking it from Sasuke. "Thank you!" she said, and hugged Sasuke. Sasukes blush became a darker pink, but it still wasn't that visible.

"Jess!"

Said person let go of Sasuke, and looked around. "Carly! Max!" she shouted, waving to them.

Carly stopped herself from running into the pair, skidding to a stop a metre from Jess. Max tumbled into Carly, tumbling them both over. Jess started laughing, and then Carly and Max joined in. Sasuke was still leaning against the tree, smirking. Max noticed Sasuke, and waved.

"Where'd you get too? When I came back, I only saw Max, and he said that you went off with some friends." Carly asked. Jess started laughing. "Haha, friends MY ARSE! Sakura and all these other girls came and dragged me away to these faces on a mountain, tied me up in a chair and demanded that I tell them why Sasuke liked me! Ha, as if Sasuke would like ME!" she explained, pointing to where Sasuke was sitting. Or, where he _was_ sitting.

Carly, Jess and Max looked everywhere, but couldn't find the Uchiha heir. "Well, that's weird. Should we continue our shopping trip, then?" Carly suggested. "Sure, okay!" Jess agreed, leading the way to the marketplace again. Where she had learnt the way, Carly and Max had yet to wonder.

They finally arrived at the marketplace, and started looking around the shops for stuff that they needed. At the first store they bought a large amount of instant ramen, crisps and soda. They also bought bread, milk, cereal, tea bags and sugar. The next store they bought a different change of clothes and some pajamas.

Carly's change of clothing consisted of an aquamarine V-neck tee with a white mini skirt, fish net leggings and bandages to cover her hands to her elbows. Jess had a red tee with black spots and faded blue jeans. She also had bandages to put up one arm, the same style as Carly's. Max had bought, as always, a long sleeved white shirt and long black trousers.

Carly's pajamas consisted of a purple silk night dress and a long sleeved white shirt. Jess had a blue night shirt with a picture of a kunai printed on it and short white cotton boxers with multi-coloured dots. Max's pajamas consisted of a loose black shirt and black satin boxers.

All up, there shopping had cost about ¥1250. As they were walking home, they came past a jewelry store. "Oh! I wanna look in here! Is that okay with everyone?" Carly asked. Max nodded, as did Jess. "I wanna check something in here too." Jess added.

Inside the store lay rows of gold and silver jewelry. Hundreds of colours glinted up at the three as they entered. "Oh wow!" Carly exclaimed as they wandered through the many rows. Jess had pulled out the necklace Sasuke had given her and was walking up to the counter. She rang the bell, and the store keeper came from the back.

"How may I help you today?" said the cheery young clerk. Jess held up the necklace. "I want to know if a young boy of about 12 has come in here and bought this necklace. He has black hair and obsidian eyes. Usually wears black, blue or white." The clerk nodded. "Yes, he came in here yesterday and bought it. Quite un talkative about who it was for though and it's a women's jewelry piece, so it couldn't be for himself either." He explained. Jess just nodded and put the necklace back away.

While Jess had been talking with the clerk, Carly had been roaming the different rows of jewelry, and had come across the amethyst section. She loved amethyst, because it was her birthstone. Walking to the last row of amethyst jewelry, Carly spotted a one she wanted. She motioned to the clerk that she was interested and he picked up out of its case for her.

The necklace was a strand of silver wire/chain and at the bottom it had an amethyst dragon curled around an emerald tear drop. She looked at the price tag, it read, "¥150". Carly handed over the money, and the clerk handed her the necklace in silent acceptation.

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**So, there's this chapter. It turned out longer than expected as well. I hope you like your kidnapping part Jess! Soyeah, the next chapter is the sleepover that Kiba's hosting. It'll be REALLY big. Soyeah. What mayhem will be caused by the trio attending? Who knows! Keep reading to find out!! Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	7. The Sleepover Party

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // I hope you all liked the last chapter and I hope that you all like this chapter! I didn't mention it in Chapter Six, but I've been banned from the internet! (cry) So, the only time I'll be able to update is if I go to a friends place or something. I'm currently writing instead of being on the internet, and I'm carrying around every chapter on a USB drive in hope of finding a computer with internet access that doesn't have fanfiction banned! Oh well, here's the chapter.

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When Max woke up the next morning, he found that the girls weren't in the house. He looked upstairs, downstairs, outside, everywhere in their property. He wondered where they could have got too. Shrugging, he walked downstairs again and grabbed a banana from the fruit basket.

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**With Carly and Jess**

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Carly and Jess were having the time of their life training with Tenten and Hinata. They had been sparing with them for about 2 hours, since dawn. Tenten had let Carly and Jess know with a little note that she had hid from the boys by handing it to them in disguise. AKA, the fruit basket that Team Gai had given them. Carly had found it when she hid the money under the pear. The note had said:

"_Jess, Carly, meet Hinata and I_

_at training grounds five_

_tomorrow at dawn._

_It's a girls only training session,_

_held every Saturday,_

_but Hinata and I are usually the only_

_ones that attend, for Sakura and Ino_

_are usually swooning over Sasuke,_

_and Temari's too powerful for us._

_Love, Tenten"_

So, the girls had gone done to the training grounds before Max woke up, and had met Tenten and Hinata there, as planned. Little did they know, they were being watched.

Kiba and Neji had noticed, that every Saturday morning, Hinata and Tenten went missing from 6-8. So, being naturally curious, they had followed one morning, both unaware of the other. They had eventually seen each other, and eventually figured out that the girls sparred with each other in the time they were missing.

Although Kiba and Neji said that they were curious, both knew that the other had a crush on either Tenten or Hinata. Kiba liked Hinata, and Neji liked Tenten. Not that they'd admit it of course. This morning however, they were surprised to find the new girls, Carly and Jess, join the other two in sparring.

"Jess's pretty good isn't she?" Kiba commented. "Yeah, she is, but so is Carly. She can almost fully block all of Tentens weapons, save the occasional kunai." Neji added, motioning to Tenten and Carly throwing various weapons at each other. "Hmm, but look at Jess and Hinata. Jess is fighting with careful precision, isn't she? I'm actually a bit worried about Hinata this time." Kiba replied.

The boys continued to watch until the girls stopped sparing and started to gather their weapons and pack up.

"Nice job, Carly. You're pretty good at blocking." Tenten said, helping Carly bandage up her wounds from the various kunai. "Hey, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to kill me!" Carly joked, tying the last bandage up. Tenten smiled, and walked over to Hinata and Jess, who were chatting contentedly to each other.

"S-so Jess, are you g-going to the s-sleepover at K-K-Kibas?" Carly heard as she too joined them. "Well, yeah. Carly, Max and I want to go, for sure!" Jess said with excitement. "Hinata, when actually is the sleepover?" Hinata looked surprised. "W-well, it starts at 5:30 pm t-this afternoon." Hinata explained. Jess nodded.

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**5:10 pm**

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"Damnit Max! Hurry up and pack! We've got five minutes until Tenten arrives to take us to the sleepover!" Carly shouted, hitting Max over the head with her hairbrush. (She had found it in the bathroom in a cabinet) "God, Carly, aren't you taking this a bit seriously?" Max asked, rubbing his sore head. "Well, I haven't met Shika-kun yet! I'm betting he'll be there!" Carly shouted again. She's a big Shikamaru fangirl. Max sighed and packed some clothes.

When Tenten arrived, Carly, Max and Jess all picked up their bags and walked with Tenten to the park. "Why are we here? Isn't the sleepover at Kibas?" Jess asked. "Yeah, but I'm waiting here for Neji and Lee. They're doing their evening spar just over the hill." Tenten said, pointing to a hill 5 kilometres away. Carly nodded, as did Jess and Max.

After a few minutes, the distant figures of Lee and Neji came into sight. It seems that they were having a race. A black and white blur was just ahead of a green and black blur, and suddenly, Lee and Neji stood in front of them, panting, a look of triumph upon Nejis face. It was inevitable that he'd win anyway. So the six set off towards Kibas house.

As they walked, a large house appeared. The back of the house was up against the wall that separated the village from the forest, and it seemed that there was a small hole in the wall leading through covered by vines and large leaves. Outside the house were several potted plants and various chew toys.

Tenten walked right up to the door. Carly thought she heard talking coming from inside as Tenten just opened the door, stepped in and shouted: "Look who's finally here!" Lee laughed, and bounded forward, his bag bouncing off his back. Neji followed at a slower pace, and Max soon followed. Tenten, Carly and Jess came in after the boys, and Tenten walked up to their host.

"Hey Kiba! Where can Carly, Jess and I put our stuff?" she asked. Kiba looked over at them, and said with a smile, "Where ever the hell you want!" Tenten laughed, then added in a serious tone, "No seriously. We don't want none of you perverted boys going through our bags!" Kiba laughed, then added, "Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. Sakura, Ino, Temari and Hinata were the same. There's a room for you girls to do whatever upstairs, first door to your left."

The girls walked upstairs and entered the first room to their left. As Carly was in the lead, she was the one that got the shock. She screamed as a kunai embedded itself in the door frame, a mere inch from her face. She then heard laughter from inside. "Haha! You should have seen your face!" laughed Sakura. A girl with long blond hair, who Carly identified as Ino, was nodding and laughing at Sakuras comment.

Temari walked up to the three girls. "Ha, sorry about that, but we seriously don't want boys coming in here, so we set up traps." She explained. Once Carly realised that she wasn't being attacked, she laughed too, in relief. Tenten then walked in and sat down in the circle with Hinata, Ino and Sakura. Then, as Jess walked in, the laughing stopped. Sakura and Ino looked at Jess with envy and hate in their eyes, and Jess just ignored them.

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"Hey girls! We're gonna start having some fun!"

"Coming Kiba!!" Tenten yelled.

It had been about ten minutes since the girls arrived, and they had spent that time setting up traps in case the boys decided to come in while they weren't there. All in all, they had 30 kunai traps pointing at the door and the two windows, mouse traps set on the window sill and three nets: one placed above the door and one above each window. They felt they had done a good job. Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Temari, Tenten, Carly and Jess carefully stepped through their traps, and closed the door quietly behind them. The girls walked down stairs and found the boys sitting in a circle.

"C'mon girls! Time for a little bit of fun. We've got pass-the-parcel ready!" Kiba shouted happily. Everyone was surprised when Carly and Jess yawned and pulled chips and soda from behind their backs. "We've something funnier in mind." They declared, and the boys parted their circle to make room for the seven girls.

Jess and Carly stood up and started to explain their game. "It's called The Drinking Game. You're supposed to play with alcohol, but we're all under age so we're using soda instead." Carly explained. Jess then said, "What happens is that we spin a bottle in the middle of our circle, and who ever it points too has to ask everyone a true or false question. If it's true, you drink an inch; if it's false, you do nothing." Jess finished, both the girls sitting down.

Carly spun the bottle in the middle of the circle. It span around and around and around until it came to a stop on Hinata. She looked a bit shocked, but tried to think of something to ask. "Anou... You've gone to a club sport and made a complete fool of yourself."

Naruto picked up a can of soda and poured a glass for everyone. He then drank about an inch of his. Shino, Carly, Jess, Kiba, Ino and Sakura joined him soon after. She being the one the bottle landed on, Hinata got to spin next. It landed on Kankuro.

"... You've kissed someone before." He said, taking a drink from his glass. Carly, Sasuke, Naruto, Shino and Temari drank also. Kankuro then span the bottle. It landed on Jess. "Ooohhh yay! My turn!" she said excitedly. "Umm, okay, you've got a crush on someone in this room." She stated. Thirteen hands reached for their drinks.

"Woah! Neji, Hinata, Carly, Max, Temari, Shikamaru, Tenten, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Sasuke and Lee! Looks like love is in the air here!!" she shouted, clapping her hands together. Carly burst out laughing and Jess joined her almost immediately.

Neji, Hinata, Max, Shikamaru, Tenten, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Ino and Sasuke blushed, but only Hinatas was visible for some weird reason.

The game continued for the next few hours. By the end, they had used up a total of twenty cans of soda. Carly yawned. "I'm getting bored of this game now. How about we play Truth or Dare. Boys versus girls." She suggested. Jess shrugged and agreed, as did Max. The rest of them looked a little confused. "We know how to play Truth or Dare, but what's with the boy versus girls part?" Chouji asked. He had enjoyed The Drinking Game immensely.

Carly began to explain to them. "Boys versus girls is like a competition of who can have to most fun and make the most noise while still playing the game. But, it doesn't really matter. We usually end up having so much fun we forget about the competition." She said. "Okay Kiba, it's your house, you decide who goes where."

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**Okay guys! How'd you like The Drinking Game? It's a great game, perfect for sleepovers. Especially girl slumber parties. So remember that girls!! Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	8. Truth or Dare

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // I hope you like this chapter guys. It's the Truth or Dare part. I've got a feeling that you're going to like this chapter, Arian. But, I still haven't found a computer yet. Damn. Although by the time you read this, it's obvious that I have. Soyeah. I'm just writing it the way it is now. See you at the end of the chapter!

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:  
**

Dobe – Loser

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The girls were sitting in a circle in the backyard. It was dark, about eight at night. The boys had suggested that the girls play in the living room and they go outside, but a smile crept over each girls face as they remembered what took place.

_Flashback_

"_Okay Kiba, it's your house, you decide who goes where." Carly said, picking up the remains of The Drinking Game. Kiba thought for awhile. "Okay," he said. "You girls can stay here and we boys will go outside. We wouldn't want you getting dirt under your pretty little nails." Carly raised an eyebrow. "Are you challenging me?" she said. "Or just being sexist?" Jess added. Kiba and the rest of the boys smirked. All of a sudden, Kiba was on the ground, Carly sitting on his stomach with a kunai at his throat. The rest of the girls had got the other boys in a net, amazingly fast. They had planned this before hand, but they never thought it would work this well. "We'll go outside. After all, we kicked __your__ arses." Temari quipped, smirking at Max who was frowning at her._

_End Flashback_

So, the girls had gone outside and left the boys to untie them selves, which would be pretty hard. They estimated about 30 minutes would do it.

"So, Paper, Scissors, Rock on who goes first." Temari said, holding a hand out. Each girl put one of their hands out and in the end, Temari won. "Okay then. Tenten, Truth or Dare?" she asked. "I chose Dare." Tenten replied. "I dare you to climb that tree, hang upside down and sing, 'I'm a little tea-pot.'" Temari smirked, pointing to the largest tree in the yard. Tenten scowled, and stood up.

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Kiba scowled, and rubbed his throat. "Man she's good." he said, and the others nodded in agreement. It was inevitable from Max's information that Carly was the formulator of the net plan. Max sighed and said, "She's -" but was cut off as the tune, 'I'm a little tea pot' filled the air. "What the hell? That sounds like Tenten!" Neji said, standing up. "Trust you to know…" Kiba whispered, but Neji heard him, and hit him over the head. "I bet Hinata's out there, Kiba!" Neji drawled, peering out the window. He could see Tenten hanging upside down from a tree, her shirt falling down slightly so that her stomach was visible.

Neji blushed, joining Kiba in the Blush Contest. He quickly looked away and drew the curtains shut, standing in front of them so that nobody could see what he saw.

"What's going on, Neji?" asked a dopey looking Naruto. "Nothing you should worry about, dobe." said a very bored Sasuke. He had been the first out of the net, and was now laying spread out on the couch.

Shikamaru had been quiet through the whole thing, and hadn't even got caught in the net trap. For obvious but not that obvious reasons. It was like that because just about everyone besides Shikamaru and Naruto knew that Carly fancied Shikamaru. Nobody wanted to tell him though, not knowing how he'd handle a fangirl, but now Shikamaru decided to talk.

"Neji's probably just seen something he doesn't want anybody else to see, most likely including Tenten."

At this, all the boys crowed around the window to see what the, 'something' was.

"Nice going, Genius." said a very pissed Neji. By now, every boy but Shikamaru and Sasuke had seen Tentens stomach. "Woah! Tenten's got a nice tan!" Naruto unwisely said, and soon had a very large bump on his head, curtesy of Neji. "What's gotten you into a wrap, Neji? If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a crush on Tenten!" Max said jokingly. Neji just looked at him helplessly.

"Oh my god. You do, don't you?" Kankuro laughed, grinning at Neji. Neji just nodded slightly and looked away. "Don't tell her, or I'll make your life a living hell." Neji threatened. "I believe that's my job." came a deadly whisper. It was Gaara. He was sitting upside down on the roof, watching them all, while his hair continued to defy gravity.

All of a sudden, a large sound was heard through the house.

"GAARA! WHERE ARE YOU, SUGAR-BOO?!" came the echoing voice. Gaara looked scared and fell off the roof. "She's here…!" he said in a very low, scared whisper. He ran and hid under the table. All of a sudden, the door was kicked down, and in the door way stood a girl with amber coloured eyes and raven black hair. Her obsidian eyes glinted with determination, and her clothing said she had done everything in her power to get here. The faded black jeans with rips in the knees and a one strap top with a split seam halfway up one side.

"I found you, Gaara!" the girl said happily, running up to the table and dragging Gaara out from underneath it. Gaara whimpered under her touch, and refused to let go of the table. He was _obviously_ scared of this girl.

"Aaawww! C'mon Gaara! Give your fiancée a hug!" Kankuro said, prising Gaaras fingers from the table. "FIANCÉE?!" Gaara screamed, trying to run away. "Yes. Temari and I spoke to Lady's father and he said he would love to let her marry you." he explained, smirking at Gaara. The girl called Lady simply smiled, grabbed Gaara and gave him a bone crushing hug, dragging him out of the house and down the road.

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The girls heard the screams and bangs from the boys camp and laughed. "Looks like Lady found Gaara, then." Temari chuckled. "Lady?" Jess and Carly both inquired. "Yeah, Gaaras fiancée. He's scared of her though, and tries to run away. Can't wait until the wedding, and then the HONEYMOON!" Temari fell on the ground, laughing her head off. "You're cruel, Temari, really cruel." Ino said. "Yeah. Poor Gaara…." Sakura added. She wouldn't admit it, but she had secret feelings for Gaara as well as Sasuke, but wouldn't let anyone know, especially Ino or Jess.

Tenten finished singing, 'I'm a little tea pot' and climbed down the tree. She had seen the boys peering through the curtains at her, and was thoroughly embarrassed. Not to mention the fact that Neji had seen her stomach. Tenten has had a crush on Neji since the Academy a few years back. She had been overwhelmed with happiness the day she had been placed in his squad when they graduated, and had vowed to never let him get hurt while she could help it.

Tenten walked back to the circle of giggling girls and asked Carly, "Truth or Dare?" Carly answered, "Dare." before Tenten had gotten the last word out. She always picked Dare. Tenten laughed. "Okay then Carly. I dare you to go and flash to the boys." she said quickly. She expected Carly to back out, and was thoroughly surprised when she smiled. "Okay, no problem." Carly said, standing up.

Tenten and all the other girls squealed. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!" they all shouted. Carly laughed, and walked to the door. She knocked once, twice, three times.

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Shikamaru glanced at the door as he heard the knocks. He sighed and stood up, knowing who it'd be. "I'll get it…" he said, walking to the door. He opened it with a very bored expression. "What is it, Carly-chan?"

In the doorway stood a very pleased looking Carly. She pushed the door open and walked in. She sat down in the middle of the living room floor, while the boys just followed her with her eyes, wondering what she was up to.

"Hiya boys! I've gotta dare. Wanna know what it is?" she asked, an evil grin settling on her lips. The boys warily sat down on the ground in front of her. Naruto just jumped up and sat beside her, nodding his head furiously. Carly laughed at Naruto, and flicked his nose.

The other boys nodded their heads slowly. Carly smiled. "Okay, well, I've been dared to flash to you guys." she said, standing up. The boys fell backwards, hitting their heads on the couch behind them, causing Sasuke to fall off. Carly laughed, then quickly lifted her shirt to show a short, white undershirt and a slightly tan stomach. Laughing, Carly yelled, "The girls never mentioned specifics!" and ran out the door.

The boys just sat there for the next five minutes. "Well…. That was unexpected!" said a very dazed Shikamaru, with a slight nosebleed. "Aaawww! C'mon, Genius! You know you liked it!" said Kiba, giving Shikamaru and playful punch. Shikamaru just sighed and shook his head. "Troublesome woman…" he muttered to himself.

Sasuke decided to spill the beans. "You know, Carly has a crush on you, Shikamaru." he said, smirking at Shikamaru's face. Shikamaru had a look of pure disbelief plastered on his face. "No way. You're kidding, right?" he said, looking around the room of grinning boys. "Sorry mate, we're not kidding. Lucky bastard!" Kiba said, walking over to Shikamaru and patting him on the back.

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**So, how'd you guys like that chapter? I was bored, so decided to add a little bit of spice. And I haven't found a computer yet, either. Soyeah, troublesome for me. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	9. Confessions of Love

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Well, I found a computer with internet. And it was right beside me, too. Literally right beside me, in my brother's room. I won't be able to go in there to use the computer much though, because he's usually in their using the internet, and also we're having internet troubles as well. It sucks, hey? Oh well.

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:**

Itikimas – I'm leaving now

Itadakimasu – Bless the food

Anou – Um, uh

Ja ne – See you (Female)

Ja na – See you (Male)

Ja - Bye

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The game of Truth or Dare had ended an hour ago, and nobody had won, as per usual. Jess, Carly, Tenten, Temari and Hinata had gotten a lot more dares including the boys. One of Jess' dares had been to go and sit on Sasuke's lap and give him a peck on the cheek, curtesy of Temari. Sakura and Ino just stared on helplessly, and nearly screamed in rage when Sasuke kissed her back. And with that, the girls had joined the boys, with Jess still sitting on Sasuke's lap.

Sasuke had admitted that he liked her to Jess, and Jess had said that she'd developed a bit of a crush on him since their second meeting, so everything had gone fine there.

"So, what're we gonna do now?" Carly said, sitting down cross legged on the ground. Kiba shrugged. "I dunno. You guys have been the life of the party since it started at 5:30," Kiba looked at the clock. "and it's now 10:20. Why don't you think of something?" Jess looked over at Carly and nodded. Carly nodded back. "Okay then. You really want us to choose the next game?" Carly asked Kiba. When Kiba nodded, Carly stood up. "I'll go get the stuff then. You guys wait here."

Five minutes later, Carly still hadn't returned with whatever it was she was getting. Shikamaru stood up. "I'm ah… Gonna go see if she needs any help…" he said, not looking at anyone. "Shikamaru, you're such a bad liar." Sasuke said. "Hmm, just go up there and tell her how you feel, for crying out loud. We all know she fancies you." Jess added. Shikamaru blushed, but didn't say anything. Instead he just walked up the stairs.

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Carly was searching through her bags upstairs when she heard the door open. "Watch out!" she said, turning around quickly. She saw Shikamaru's look of surprise, and quickly ran over to him and caught the kunai trap before it embedded itself in his chest. He just looked at the kunai and then at Carly. Carly looked right back at him. Then she sighed, dropped the kunai and went back to her bags.

Shikamaru looked a little confused, but walked over to her and sat down in front of her and her bags. Carly looked up, a little surprised. "What?" Shikamaru asked. "Whaddya mean, what? What are you doing here?" Carly shot back at him. He looked a little taken back, but proceeded to answer her. "Well, you were taking a little while, so I came up to see if I could help." he said, peering into her bag. Carly hit him over the head gently. "Hey, the only reason I came up here is so that _you_ would come up here and we can be alone." Carly announced, smirking at him.

Shikamaru shook his head. She had him. Feeling frustrated, Shikamaru leaned forward, grabbed her arm and kissed her. He let go of her arm and broke away. Now _he_ had _her_. Carly looked the tiniest bit shocked, honestly not expecting him to do that. Shikamaru grabbed her arm again and dragged her down onto his lap. "You're troublesome, but so worth it." he whispered in her ear and she smiled.

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Downstairs, Kiba was getting impatient. "What's taking her so long? And how come Shikamaru hasn't come back yet?" he asked. "He's probably been hit by one of our traps, and Carly's probably healing him. Who knows?" Temari said, shrugging. Kiba stood up. "Well, I'm going to find out." he said, walking up stairs.

Kiba came to the door and opened it. A kunai whistled past his ear and he jumped. "What the hell?!" he shouted, when he saw Shikamaru and Carly, together. Shikamaru looked up at Kiba as he heard the shout. "What?" he said simply. Carly just stared at Kiba. "Carly, you said that you were getting the stuff for the next game!" Kiba shouted. Carly nodded. "Yeah, and I found it." she said, holding up an empty, glass bottle. Kiba looked a little confused, so Shikamaru filled in the gaps. "We're going to play Spin-the-Bottle." he said, and Carly nodded again. Kiba sighed. "Then why the hell is Carly in your lap, and why are you kissing her?" he asked. Shikamaru and Carly shrugged. "Dunno." they both said simultaneously. Kiba shook his head and walked back downstairs.

"So w-what did you f-find out, K-Kiba?" Hinata asked, looking up at him from her spot next to Sakura and Tenten. Kiba laughed. "Looks like it's gonna be fun after all." he stated as Shikamaru and Carly came back down the stairs, holding hands.

Carly sat down in a hurry, still holding Shikamaru's hand, causing him to fall down next to her. She laughed silently while he cursed and picked himself up, sitting down next to her and placing a protective arm around her waist. Carly held up the bottle. "Okay guys. We're playing Spin-the-Bottle, whether you like it or not!" she announced, setting the bottle on the ground. She then held out a hand. "Paper, Scissors, Rock on who spins first." she said, and everyone held out a hand.

Sasuke won, and spun the bottle. It landed on Carly, and as Sasuke leaned over to give Carly a peck on the cheek, Shikamaru glared at him. Carly laughed when she saw his face. "Hahaha! Shika-kun!" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. He protectively put both his arms around her, lifted her up and placed her on his lap.

Next, Carly spun the bottle and it landed on Lee. Lee wasn't looking though, and was shocked when Carly gently kissed him on the cheek. It seemed he had been staring at Sakura the whole time. "Well that's a surprising youth blossom!" Lee shouted, staring at Carly now. Carly giggled and sat back down next to Shikamaru.

The game continued, and soon everyone got bored. Suddenly, Tenten yawned, whether she wanted to or not. It seemed not, because she covered her mouth almost immediately afterwards. "Are you tired, Tenten?" Neji asked, looking at her. Tenten blushed and shook her head. "C'mon, don't lie. It's 11 o'clock, we should all get some sleep." Kankuro said, standing up. Kiba nodded and so did the rest of the boys. Tenten sighed, but remained seated. As everyone else forwarded out, Tenten stood up and walked to the window, looking outside at the full moon.

She opened it and climbed outside, walking over to a large tree leaning against the fence, the one she had been dared to climb and sing on earlier today. She once again climbed the massive tree, sitting on the topmost branch, looking out into the stars. She jumped as she heard someone's voice behind her.

"What're you doing out here, Tenten?" asked the voice. "Looking at the stars." she replied, not looking at the figure. "Why are you looking at the stars?" the voice asked again. "They look so happy. They always have company; if not the moon, then each other. I wish I could be like them. I wish the one I loved would make me happy, just as the one they love, the moon, makes them happy."

Tenten continued to talk with the mysterious voice for the next hour. "Tenten, I must leave. I bid you goodbye, for now. Itikimas." the voice said. "No, wait!" Tenten cried, turning around and flinging an arm out to try and stop the mysterious voice. It wasn't there. She looked around her, up, down and behind, but the voice did not appear.

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"Woah, Tenten, you look tired. What time did you get to sleep last night?" Carly asked, leaning over the drowsy Tenten. Said person sighed. "Anou…. About one in the morning?" Carly laughed. "At this rate, you'll become insomniac like me!" she said, sitting down again.

It was breakfast time, and Carly had prepared food for anyone. As she sat down, cries of, "Itadakimasu!" could be heard as people started eating with pleasure. As she started eating, Jess and Tenten came and joined her. "Well, that was fun last night!" Jess said happily. Tenten nodded and yawned. "I don't think I got much sleep though." she said, after swallowing, the spoon resting on her bottom lip. With a confused look from both Carly and Jess, Tenten began explaining. "I came outside for a little bit, because it was a bit stuffy inside, and I fell asleep under the tree. Then, when I woke up it was pitch black. I used the small torch I brought with me to find my way inside, but I couldn't get back to sleep after that." As Tenten finished, Kiba stood up in the middle of everyone.

"Well guys, it's been fun, but I guess it's time to go now." he said unhappily. Everybody stopped eating and didn't look at anyone else. Jess glanced at the clock and accidentally caught Sasuke's eye while doing so. She smiled and waved, and he smiled back.

Everyone came out of their daze as a crash was heard and a terrified Gaara stood in the broken doorway. "Help me!" he whispered, hiding behind a bush. "GAARA-KUN?! WHERE ARE YOU, MY GAARA-KUN?!" came the voice of Lady. Carly and Jess walked up to the girl. "He jumped over the wall and ran into the forest." Carly said simply. "Yeah, he seemed very desperate. Are you guys having a race or something?" Jess added, leading Lady to the hole in the wall. "He ran north. If you follow the path for about 4 km, you should catch up with him."

Lady smiled and jumped over the wall. Her cries of, "Gaara-kun?! Gaara-kun?!" disappeared after about five minutes. A very relieved Gaara came out of hiding in the bushes and shakily walked over to the girls. "I-Is she g-gone?" he asked nervously. Jess nodded. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Gaara cried, giving Jess a big hug. Noting all the looks of surprise and shock, Jess awkwardly patted him on the back.

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The girls were upstairs, packing their bags. Tenten was sitting on hers, looking at everybody else, because she had finished packing up. Hinata was sitting next to her on her own bags. Carly was just finishing, as was Jess. Sakura and Ino were both having trouble with their bags, because they had brought four bags full of skimpy clothing, shoes and jewellery to try and seduce Sasuke with. As Sakura threw a low cut, pink tank top into one of her bulging bags, she caught Jess' eye and scowled. Temari was almost finished her bag, but was having trouble with her sleeping bag. She cursed, sitting down on it to try and fit it into the bag.

"Need any help, Temari?" Ino asked, abandoning her bags to reach for Temari's. Temari glared down at her darkly, and Ino slowly backed away. Carly and Jess finished packing their bags and looked over at Temari struggling with her bags. Jess decided to help. "Hey, Temari? Maybe if you _folded_ the sleeping bag?" Temari looked over at the two girls. "But I'm too lazy too!" she complained. Carly walked over to the bag. "Well, I can fold it for you, if you like?" she offered. Temari nodded and smiled at her. Carly smiled back and picked up the offending object. She folded it quickly, and easily fitted it into Temari's bag. Temari thanked Carly, and Tenten, Hinata, Jess, Temari and Carly walked downstairs, leaving Ino and Sakura to battle with their bags.

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The boys were sitting down talking about various things when the five girls came down the stairs. Carly and Jess sat down next to their respective boyfriends, Temari leaned against the wall with Shino and Kankuro, Tenten sat down a few metres away from Neji and Hinata went and joined the conversation between Naruto, Kiba and Chouji. Everyone was getting along nicely when Ino and Sakura stumbled down the stairs carrying all their bags. Seeing the looks on their faces, everyone started to laugh.

"Well, fine! We'll leave then!" Ino shouted, and stormed out the door, soon followed by Sakura. As she left, Sakura glanced over at Gaara and caught him looking at her. She hurriedly left the house and caught up to a very annoyed Ino.

"Hey Carly, Jess, we should get going too." Max said, coming to stand by the four. Sasuke rolled his eyes and Shikamaru yawned, signalling they didn't care. Carly also rolled her eyes, gave Shikamaru a peck on the cheek, and stood up. Jess sighed and followed suit. "Max, you're such a spoil sport." Carly complained, picking up her bag. "Ja ne, Sasuke-kun." Jess said, also picking up her bag. "Ja na." he replied, also standing up. "Bye-bye, Shika-kun." Carly said, and received a, "Bye" in return.

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**So, that's the end of the sleepover. Hope you found it interesting if not funny. I'm terrible at making humour these days. This is what lack of internet does to me. -cry- And now I'm hearing things. I swear I just heard the garage door open. And a car pulling up the drive way. But, no. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	10. Strangers and Exams

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // I don't really know what I'm gonna put in this chapter. I've kinda run out of immediate ideas. And I've got writer's block, the most accursed disease on the planet. Let's just see what I come up with. I might even add some excitement to the plot. Who knows?

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:**

Hai – Yes

Sensei – Teacher

Iku ze – Let's go

Nani – What

Anou – Um, Uh

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"Carly! Jess! Max! Wake up already and get down here!" Iruka thundered up the stairs. He had somehow managed to get inside the house, despite all the traps set against breaking-and-entering. "Man, Iruka-sensei. It's four in the morning." Carly said sleepily, leaning over the banister in her pyjamas. Jess came and joined her, yawning. "Well, you guys had a day off yesterday, and the day before, so today you're gonna make up for it." Iruka explained. Carly groaned and muttered, "Troublesome" to herself, but Iruka heard her. "Carly, I think you're spending too much time with Shikamaru. You're starting to sound like him." he said, smirking at her.

Carly grimaced and walked back to her room to get dressed. Iruka turned to Jess. "Aren't you going to get ready too?" he asked. Jess rolled her eyes and walked away to hammer on Max's door. He still wasn't up.

"Max! Get up now!" Jess called through the wood. She received a grunt in reply. Disgruntled, she walked away, and heard a thud and echo behind her. She turned around and smiled. It seemed Carly wasn't a morning person, considering she had just thrown a kunai at the door, and it was currently quivering next to the handle.

"Take that as a warning Max. Don't get up now, and it'll be you." a dangerous voice said from Carly's room. This wasn't very much like her. So Jess just walked to her room and started getting dressed, smirking all the way. Max was in serious trouble if he wasn't up soon.

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Tenten was sitting on her window sill waiting for the sun to rise. Her mysterious visitor had left a few moments ago. This same person had visited her that night at the sleepover as well, and it seemed that they appeared whenever she felt troubled at night, or just needed some company. She felt comfortable with them, for some reason, like she could tell them anything. So she did.

They had given her a name that night. She was to call the mysterious stranger Untitled. Strange, but Tenten hadn't objected.

So here she was, thinking over the night.

_Flashback_

_Tenten was tossing and turning in her bed. She'd been having nightmares lately, and wasn't getting much sleep. Exasperated, she sat up, looking around her room. She had taken her hair out to sleep, so she got up and moved to the window. Reaching for her hairbrush, she looked out at the view. It was the second night of the full moon. Tenten started brushing her waist long hair half-heartedly while looking out at the moon. _

_Finished, she put the hairbrush back down and climbed outside onto the window sill, gazing up at the moon. "Still having nightmares?" a nearby voice said. Knowing it was her strange visitor from the night before, Tenten nodded, not taking her eyes off the large, circular spot of white in the sky before her. The figure jumped into the tree beside her window sill, and leant against the tree. "It's amazing how calm just looking at the moon can make you, isn't it?" the figure asked. "Hai…" Tenten whispered back, looking down at her feet dangling below._

"_Forgive me, about yesterday." The figure bowed. "I left without giving you a name. You may call me Untitled, for I have no name. I am but a mere man who travels the many kingdoms giving peace and reassurance to distressed ladies like your fine self." Tenten looked up at the figure._

_A strong man stood leaning against the tree. Pale skin shone in the moonlight. Bright green eyes stood out amiss the sleek black hair that fell to his shoulders. He wore black baggy jeans held up by white bandages and a sleeveless black shirt was tucked into the bandages. Long, fingerless fish net gloves enclosed both of his hands and arms._

_Tenten looked back at the moon. "There's not much I can do about nightmares, though." Untitled said, walking along a tree branch so he was about a metre from Tenten. He sat down on the thick wood and looked at her. They sat in silence for the next hour, just watching the moon together. _

_When Tenten finally turned to Untitled again, he was gone. In his place was a sparkling blue gem, dotted with little white spots and a small note. "Lapis lazuli..." she whispered to herself, and picked up the precious stone and note. "I'll be back tomorrow night, I promise." she read aloud._

_End Flashback_

Tenten looked at the lapis lazuli stone once more, and then watched as the moon sunk below the horizon. As the sun rose, she stood up and climbed back into her room.

Even though she hadn't slept that night, Tenten felt refreshed, so she hurried about getting ready for the day. Gai and Lee would be there soon with Neji to pick her up for training, and she wanted to be ready for them. First thing was first though, her panda buns. She quickly and efficiently twisted her hair up into two identical buns on the top of her head. She pulled herself out of her pyjamas and quickly slipped on her day clothes. Strapping her kunai pouch to her left leg, she quickly filled it with kunai, shuriken and a few scrolls. Tenten then ran downstairs.

Right on que, there came a knock on her door. Heading to the door, she yelled, "Coming!" so that they knew she was home. She opened the door to the joyous faces of her team mate and sensei. "Morning, Neji-kun, Lee, Gai-sensei!" she said brightly. "Good morning Tenten!" Lee said enthusiastically. "Ready to go for our morning fun run?!" Tenten smiled and nodded, stepping into her shoes. "Hai, iku ze!"

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It was now mid-day, and Team Thirteen had been training ruthlessly under the strict eye of Iruka for eight hours. "Iruka-sensei!" Max whined, looking at him. "Can we stop for a little while? We've been at this for hours."

Carly looked over at him and rolled her eyes. _'How typical'_ she thought, and continued to throw kunai and shuriken at the target. Her aim was near perfect, as was Jess's, but Max specialized in nin-jutsu, so he wasn't as good with weapons as the girls were.

Iruka also looked over at Max. "If you want to let your team down, fine then. By all means you can stop." he said, walking over to him. "Let the team down on what? I mean, look at them." Max said, pointing at the girls. "They can handle anything just fine by themselves." he complained.

Iruka shook his head. "Girls, come in for a minute." he called. Carly and Jess stopped their target practice and came to stand with Iruka and Max. "Team, I wasn't supposed to tell you, but the Chuunin Exams are coming up." Iruka announced. Carly gasped. "Nani?? Are you serious?!" she shouted. Max just shrugged and Jess was trying not to look confused.

"I'm serious, Carly-chan. This is the second time this year. The last Chuunin Exam was interrupted by a full scale invasion of Konoha by the Sound and Sand villages, lead by Orochimaru. Tsunade-sama has decided that it's time to once again hold the Exam." Iruka explained. The team nodded.

Just then, Carly had another question. "Anou… Iruka-sensei? Which village is the Chuunin Exam being held at?" she asked. Iruka shook his head again. "We're not sure. Either Konoha or Suna." he finished. "Well, if you guys don't want to train anymore, you can have the rest of the day off." Iruka offered. Max sighed and shouted, "Finally!" before running away to find the boys. Jess just shrugged and walked away. Carly however stood standing, looking at the ground. Then she turned and resumed her stance near the target. She tensed, a look of concentration on her face and began throwing more weapons at the target. Before he walked away, Iruka noticed that her aim was slightly better.

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Jess walked along the path towards the Hokage Faces. They had been a kind of sanctuary for her since they had dropped into this world. Besides the fact that she had been tied up in one of the shelters around them by Sasuke's fangirls…

Jess raised her head to the sky, feeling the cool breeze across her face. She reached the base of the mountain, and the faces loomed above her. She decided to challenge herself. She took deep, calming breaths and forced chakra into her feet. Then, Jess began to walk up the mountain face.

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Max was hanging out with the boys at the top of the Hokage Faces. At the sleepover, the boys had developed a bit of a gang, consisting of Kiba, Max, Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru. They had all been let off training for the day, and surprisingly, all of them had been told of the up coming Chuunin Exams. But, all of them except Max had wanted to talk about something else.

Finally, Max couldn't take it anymore. "What's with these Exams that you guys don't like?!" he burst out. Shikamaru looked at him and sighed. "The last time the Chuunin Exams were held, Orochimaru invaded Konoha." he began. "I knew that, Iruka told us." Max butted in. Sasuke shot him a glance, and he quietened down a bit. Shikamaru continued. "We worked our butts off, but none of us ended up become Chuunin. And it was quite weird actually, that mostly the rookies made it into the finals. Sasuke, Naruto, Neji, Gaara, Temari and I all made it. But, the match between Sasuke and Gaara was interrupted by the invasion. And we thought the preliminaries were bad." Shikamaru finished, and all of the boys spare Max nodded.

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Jess was panting heavily. She was half way up, and it was exhausting her, with all the climbing. She wanted to stop, but she'd fall if she just stopped climbing. So, using her last burst of energy, she grabbed out three kunai and drove them into the rock and sat on them. It hurt a bit, but hey, she wasn't complaining.

As Jess was regaining her energy, she looked out at the sky again. It was a cloudy day, so she relaxed a bit and watched the clouds drift by.

After about an hour, she had recovered her energy and felt up to climbing the mountain again. She focused her chakra on her feet again, only this time focusing some in her hands as well. Jess started climbing again, and drew the kunai from the rock. She kept climbing for another half an hour, concentrating on the chakra in her hands and feet so she wouldn't just suddenly fall.

Jess reached up and grasped the edge of the top of the mountain. She had made it.

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It had been an hour and a half since the boys had finished discussing the Chuunin Exams. Since then, they had been fiddling with kunai and shuriken and talking about whatever popped into their heads. Suddenly, Kiba noticeably stiffened. "What's up, Kiba?" Shikamaru asked. "I can hear something," Kiba replied. "And it's close. Like it's scaling the mountain face..." The boys stood up, and looked around. Sasuke was the one who spotted her.

"Jess?!" he exclaimed. Jess looked up, breaking her concentration. "Sas-ahhhhhhhhh!" The chakra in Jess's hands and feet abandoned its position, and Jess began to fall. She quickly grabbed hold of the ledge, and hung their by one hand. She began slipping, her fingers not gaining purchase on the crumbly rock. The rock broke away and she began falling, but Sasuke grabbed her hand just in time. "Hang on, Jess!" Naruto called as Sasuke began pulling her over the edge and to safety.

When she was safely on the top of the Hokage Faces, she turned to Sasuke. "Don't ever break my concentration again, when I'm climbing the Hokage Faces..." she whispered, barely audible from shock. Sasuke nodded and gave Jess a comforting hug. Every one stood still for about five minutes, and then Naruto broke the silence.

"Anyone want some ramen?!" he shouted gleefully. Everyone started groaning. "You're such a dobe, Dobe." Sasuke shot. "Damnit Naruto! It's an awkward silence! You're not allowed to speak in an awkward silence!" Jess added. Naruto looked around helplessly.

Jess whispered something in Sasuke's ear. Sasuke smirked, and then told everyone else but Naruto. By the time the last person knew the whisper, Naruto was looking around, scared by all the grinning boys and girl. Suddenly, everyone ran at Naruto with open arms. "Group hug!" Jess called, and she, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Kiba and Max all enforced it. Naruto was left in the middle gasping for air. Jess and Max started laughing, and everyone else soon joined in, including Naruto.

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Carly was panting, holding her arm were a shuriken had embedded itself in her arm. Hinata and Tenten had come by while she had been at target practice, and had offered to help train her for the upcoming Chuunin Exams. Carly had gladly accepted, even though she was tired, and her body and muscles were practically screaming for a break.

Carly took the shuriken from her arm and threw it to the ground. She took off running to the left and dodged a chakra attack from Hinata and a frenzy of weapons, curtsey of Tenten. She threw a handful of sebon at Tenten and Hinata, purposely avoiding their vital organs. With her aim, Carly could kill the girls if she really tried, but they were her friends, and were helping her get ready for the Exams, where the conditions would be much harder.

Stopping again, she pulled out four sebon; three had bells on the end, one had not. To all four, she attached chakra strings. The stings were so thin, they were invisible. Carly threw two of the sebon with bells on the ends at Tenten, who heard them coming and dodged, the sebon flying past her and embedding themselves in a tree behind her. Tenten smirked, and Carly tugged the invisible chakra strings attached to the sebon. The smirk disappeared from Tenten's face as she tried not to look behind her. She gave into the urge and quickly looked at the needles. Carly took the chance and threw the last two sebon at her. Tenten heard the one with the bell, and jumped away, but the other, the sebon without the bell; she jumped right into its path. Tenten grimaced as the sebon sunk into her skin. Carly threw another handful at her, and they hit her, embedding themselves in her skin.

Carly then suddenly gasped in pain. While she had been paying attention to Tenten, Hinata had snuck up behind her and hit her in her right shoulder, her throwing side, with a blast of chakra. She sunk to her knees, unable to fight anymore. "Are you alright Carly?" Tenten asked. "Was my chakra too powerful?" Hinata said, suddenly her worried self again.

"I'm okay..." Carly managed. "I've just been out here, without break since five am…" Hinata looked shocked. "Y-You mean, y-you've b-been out here f-for thirteen hours s-straight without a b-b-break?!" Hinata stuttered incredulously. Carly nodded. "Carly! What were you thinking?!" Tenten shouted, pulling sebon out of her skin so she could move properly and to stop the searing pain. Carly said nothing, collapsing into the welcoming darkness of unconsciousness.

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**Wow. It turned out longer than expected… I was really thinking it would just be a filler chapter, but, I guess it's very important to the story now… And I didn't really want to make it a cliffy, because I hate them. Also, I've lost internet access again. Too bad, aye? Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	11. Training for the Exams

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Okay, so I left off on a cliffy last chapter, so I'm gonna just start from there. Maybe. I don't know. I've got writer's block, soyeah. Dx I'm terrible at these things.

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:**

Nani - What

Ne - Hey

Sensei - Teacher

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"Is she okay?"

"What happened?"

"Yeah, what did happen?"

"She had been training since five am without break, and then Hinata, Carly and I started battling, training for the Chuunin Exams until about six pm. She's so overworked…"

Carly could hear people talking around her. She tried to open her eyes, but they were gritty with sleep. She raised a hand to wipe it away. The room immediately went silent. With the sleep gone, she opened her eyes to a room. A white room. An _overly_ white room. "Man, do you need any more white in here?" she said disapprovingly.

Carly sat up and looked at the people around her. She could see the faces of Tenten, Neji, Lee, Gai, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Kurenai, Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji and Asuma. "What are you all doing here? What am _I_ doing here?" Carly asked, not looking at anyone in particular.

Tenten stepped forward. "We're here because we wanted to know if you'd be alright." she said. "And you're here because it was the closest to the area where you passed out."

Carly took the information in slowly. "So then, where am I?" she asked. "Neji's house." Tenten said simply. Carly sat bolt upright. "Nani?!" she said in panic, looking over at Neji. He nodded. Carly jumped out of the bed, knowing it was his. She looked at the white sheets. There were little spots of red over them.

Carly looked down at herself. Her aquamarine v-neck top was stained with blood, as was her white mini skirt. 'I'll need more bandages too…' she thought, inspecting her arms.

Shikamaru, Max and Jess had stayed quiet during the whole ordeal, but then they suddenly rushed forward and enveloped Carly in a big hug. Carly gasped for breath. "Ah, guys? I do need to breathe, you know…" she managed, and the three let go of her. "Carly, what were you thinking?! I was so worried. _We_ were so worried." Shikamaru asked, not taking his eyes away from Carly's bloodstained body. ((A:N // Haha, not in that way, people! -wink-wink-nudge-nudge-))

Carly shrugged. "I don't know, exactly… I was just so worried about the Chuunin Exams. I mean, they're supposed to be the most difficult and dangerous part of a genin's life…" she explained, sitting down on the floor, rubbing her shoulder. "W-Well, just don't d-do it again, please. You h-had us all s-scared f-for you.." Hinata mumbled, glancing shyly at Carly.

Carly smiled. "Don't worry, I won't. I've learnt my lesson." Jess smiled back, and Max rolled his eyes. "You're always doing crazy stuff, Carly. I doubt you've learnt your lesson." Carly grimaced. "Oh, shut up. You know what I mean!" Carly said with a laugh. "Anyway, can we like, go someplace else? I hate to intrude any more than necessary..." she added with a nervous glance at Neji's bloodstained bed.

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Carly walked along the path with Shikamaru, dressed in a new set of clothes. Shikamaru had said it was a drag, and that she was a troublesome girlfriend, but Carly had dragged him out shopping. She usually wasn't that type of girl, but she decided that she couldn't walk around in the same old bloodstained clothes. It just wasn't right. So she went out and bought herself something else to wear instead.

Her attire now consisted of a hooded, sun yellow, short sleeved top and slightly faded knee high denim jeans. She now had her hair up in a brushed back pony tail with a yellow hair tie holding it up.

"Are we done yet?" asked a mighty bored Shikamaru. "Yes, Shika-kun. You can stop complaining, as soon as we meet up with the gang." Carly said, referring to Kiba, Naruto, Sasuke, Max, Jess, Hinata, Neji and Tenten.

Shikamaru sighed, muttering something that sounded like, "Troublesome woman…" Carly just rolled her eyes at him. "You're so adorable when you're annoyed." she said innocently, giving him a peck on the cheek, which made Shikamaru blush.

The two rounded the corner and the training grounds came into view. Today, the six genin groups would be training together with their teachers. "Ne, Iruka-sensei! I'm okay to train today, right?" Carly called. Iruka smiled back at her. "Are you sure you've fully recovered? You were injured pretty badly, and it's only been a few days." he asked, still watching Max and Sasuke battle.

Carly grimaced, and rolled her eyes. "I'm _fine_. Seriously. I can handle it." Iruka shrugged his shoulders. "Fair enough. You can spar with..." Iruka trailed off, looking for someone for Carly to be paired up with. He spotted someone sitting in a tree watching Sasuke. "…Sakura." Said person looked up at the sound of her name and looked at her opponent. "Nani?! You want me to fight Carly-san??" she said in shock. Iruka nodded. "I trained you, Sakura. You should be able to hack it, if not beat her."

Carly rolled her eyes. "She wishes. I'm gonna win, and pass the Chuunin Exams, for sure!" Iruka laughed, and ushered the girls off so he could pair Shikamaru up with someone.

Sakura glanced at Carly as they walked to an unoccupied area in which they could battle. Carly smirked, and then sent a couple of sebon at Sakura. Sakura dodged, made a few hand signs, summoning two clones of herself. Carly threw sebon at the clones, making them disappear in a cloud of smoke. Sakura had ran behind her while Carly had been occupied, but now threw a handful of kunai and shuriken at her from behind.

Carly whipped around, grabbing a kunai from her ninja bag. She deflected the kunai, and they fell uselessly on the ground at her feet. Still smirking, Carly rushed at Sakura and so began the 20 minute hand-to-hand struggle for power, using kunais.

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Shikamaru was watching Carly and Sakura battle it out using taijutsu. Yawning, he leaned up against a tree as Sasuke came and sat down beside him. "Troublesome women…" Shikamaru mumbled, and Sasuke snorted.

"You can say that again. I had to fight Jess, and she's pretty good. I feel sorry for Naruto though. He had to go up against Temari, and got his ass kicked." he replied with a sigh. A small smile crossed Shikamaru's lips. "Something tells me the Exams are actually going to be a bit fun this time around."

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**Well, there we go. More of a filler chapter, than anything. Soyeah. Sorry. Dx I hope nobody's getting bored of my writing. I just read the story so far. Seems a bit cliché. I'm really not that sure. Dx Oh well. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	12. An Uneventful Day

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Ah! I'm sorry I haven't updated as soon as I would have like. Family troubles. -cry- My mother's getting 'unengaged'. -pout- And my computer's lagging. Seriously. Just typing is making my computer screw up, let alone using the internet. Soyeah. I hope you like the chapter?

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:**

Teme - Bastard

Dobe - Loser

Datte bayo - Believe it

Gombawa - Good evening

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The tired group trudged up toward the Hokage Faces. They had just finished their training session with the other genin teams, and just wanted to sit down and have a talk, as they did quite a lot. "Man, that was gruelling…" Carly complained, sitting down immediately when they reached the hang out on top of the Third Hokage's head. Shikamaru sat down beside her, and Max on her other side. Jess, Sasuke, Kiba and Naruto sat down as well, and formed a circle.

Being the lazy teme he was, Shikamaru decided he would lay down behind Carly, and soon, Carly decided to lie down as well, her head resting on Shikamaru's chest. The couple soon fell asleep, and the rest of the gang decided to strike up a conversation.

"So, are you guys gonna enter the Chuunin Exams this year?" Naruto asked stupidly. "Of course we are, dobe. Why the hell would we train this hard if we weren't gonna participate?" Sasuke shot, scowling. Naruto growled. "Hey, no need to bite my head off like that!" Naruto replied, leaning forward so his nose was almost touching Sasuke's. You could just about _see_ the electricity between them. "Hey, knock it off you two. We know you like each other, but seriously. Sasuke's mine." Jess joked, hugging Sasuke. He hugged her back, but didn't take his glare off Naruto for a few seconds. Naruto sat back down properly, but you could tell he was still a bit disgruntled. Max decided to change the subject. If you could call it that.

"What're we gonna do about Carly, though?" he said, picking up a leaf he found on the ground and placing it on Carly's forehead. "What do you mean?" Kiba asked. Max rolled his eyes. "Well, she's been training too much lately. What should we do so that she doesn't _over_ train again, and be unable to participate in the Exams?" This got the rest of the gang thinking.

"Uhm, what if we chain her to her bed every so often?" Naruto suggested, and got a few laughs in return. "What? I'm being serious." Naruto said, looking dumbfounded. This just got even more laughs from the other four, and soon Naruto started laughing too, but he still had no idea what about. Sasuke, being the logical thinker he was, came up with something a few minutes and many suggestions later. "What if we come up with a training schedule for her?" he suggested, and received a few nods of approval. "Yeah, that might work, but how are we gonna get her to agree with it?" Jess asked. Kiba shot her a confused look. Jess saw it, and explained to the three boys with hardly any knowledge of Carly, AKA Kiba, Naruto and Sasuke. "Well, Carly doesn't like being restricted that much. She's a freedom fighter, and independent. She'll seriously take it personally if she found out we've been thinking for her."

Max nodded. "Yeah, it's not like Carly to take orders from other people unless it's a teacher, like Iruka or something. Something like this would definitely be shot down if we suggested it up front." Kiba nodded in understanding. "Okay then, how do you propose we go about this?" Max thought for a while. "Well, what if we develop a training program together? Then, Carly can still train after Iruka's finished with us, and be prepared for the Chuunin Exams." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Well, what to do now? I'm bored." Kiba complained. Naruto brightened up a bit more. "Ichiraku's Ramen!" he shouted. Sasuke groaned. "Please, Naruto. We go there so often as it is." Naruto looked upset. "Hm, wanna go meet up with the others and see if they're doing anything?" Kiba asked, referring to Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Sakura, Lee, Tenten and Neji. (( A:N // Woah that's a lot of people. xDD )) Jess shrugged, Sasuke said nothing and Naruto shouted, "Datte bayo!" Kiba smirked. "Guess it's settled then. All we've got to do now is wake Carly and Max up."

Jess gave Max a warning glance, and he backed away a bit so Carly wouldn't suddenly throw a sebon or a hundred at him. Kiba raised an eyebrow, but stood up and walked over to Carly. He nudged her with his boot. "Hey Carly, time to wake up."

Carly mumbled incoherently in her sleep and shifted a bit, waking Shikamaru up. He sat up unsteadily, and quickly caught the sleeping Carly before she fell and hit her head on the rock below. He stood up with her in his arms. "Uhm, what am I meant to do with her?" he asked unsurely, looking at Jess. Jess shrugged. "Try and wake her up, I suppose? I'm betting you're the only one she won't kill." she guessed. Looking a little lost at what to do, and a little nervous now, Shikamaru sat down again, and gently placed Carly in his lap, her head lolling up against his shoulder. Shooting Jess and Max another confused look, he brushed a few stray hairs off her face and whispered in her ear, "Time to wake up, Carly-chan." Said person mumbled incoherently again, but her eyes began to flutter open.

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Carly heard someone mutter something to her, waking her from her sleep. She had been having such a nice dream. Something about Shikamaru still lingered on her mind, but she couldn't quite think of what it could be. Nothing of the dream remained. She fluttered her eyes open, and looked up at the face of Shikamaru above her. "Mmm?" she mumbled, as if to say, 'What the hell do you want?' in a nicer way.

Shikamaru looked a little relieved that she woke up. Hopefully everyone else would stop looking at him expectantly now. "What, aren't you going to kiss her then?" Naruto asked.

Carly turned a shade of red, and Shikamaru blushed a bit. Hesitantly, he lowered his face to Carly's and gently placed his lips upon hers. Carly wrapped her arms around Shikamaru's neck, slightly deepening the kiss. Kiba raised an eyebrow at Jess and Sasuke, as if to say, 'What's with them, all of a sudden?' and was surprised when he found them kissing, too. Kiba shook his head and pushed Naruto down the stairs and away from the two couples, and then walked down himself. "We'll meet up with them later." he told Naruto. "Let's go find Neji, Gaara, Kankuro and Lee." Max followed the two down.

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Naruto, Max and Kiba ran into Neji and Tenten at Ichiraku's. Naruto had insisted on going, complaining that he had missed lunch, so Kiba and Max had unwillingly followed the knuckle headed ninja to the shop. "Ohayo, Kiba-kun, Max-kun." Tenten said, waving. Kiba waved back, and sat down next to her, Max sitting on the opposite side of Neji. "So, what's been up with you and your team?" Kiba asked, Naruto sitting beside him and ordered a bowl or ramen.

Tenten shrugged. "Not much, pretty much the same, once you think about it. There's the usual competitions between Neji and Lee, the 'blessed' reunions every morning of Gai-sensei and Lee, and just general training. But seriously, I don't know how they do it. How can a sunset appear at five in the morning?" Tenten shook her head, and went back to picking at her ramen. The four ninja sat in silence (besides the occasional comment from Naruto for more ramen), until Shikamaru, Carly, Sasuke and Jess walked into the shop. "Ah, thought we'd find you here." Carly said, gesturing toward Naruto and his ramen, trying to stop herself from laughing. Max grimaced. "Yep. And I see you've finally woken up fully. Seems all you needed was a nice long kiss from Shikamaru."

Tenten almost choked on her noodles. "What the hell?!" she laughed, looking at a blushing Carly, and an equally red Shikamaru. "Uhm, long story…" Carly muttered, taking a seat next to Jess, who had sat next to Sasuke, who had sat next to Max. Shikamaru sat down next to her, and ordered them both ramen.

For the next five minutes, everyone was quiet. Carly kept shifting her eyes around the room, Jess had turned around in her seat and was staring at a space above the door and Max was talking to Sasuke about the different nin jutsu types. Shikamaru was watching some clouds go past threw a window, Naruto was still stuffing his face with ramen, and Neji and Tenten stood up to pay for their ramen.

"Well, we've got to go keep training. Lee and Gai-sensei want us to go on a twenty lap run of Konoha, and we have to be there, otherwise they'll make us do 5000 push ups." Tenten explained, rolling her eyes. Neji just walked out the door with a curt nod to Sasuke, Shikamaru and Naruto.

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Team 13 was walking calmly back to their house. Carly and Jess had said goodbye to Shikamaru and Sasuke back at the ramen stand, declaring they were tired, and deserved a bit of rest after the long day of training and had ended up dragging the complaining Max out with them. As the trio reached their house, they saw three parcels on their doorstep. "Wonder what they're for?" Jess said, as Max picked them up. "Well, we'll find out once we get inside. It's freezing out here." Carly announced, unlocking the front door and walking inside, the other two following close behind her.

Max put the parcels down on the kitchen bench and walked around it, so he was standing opposite the girls. Carly reached for the parcel with her name on it, while Jess and Max reached for theirs. Carly unwrapped her parcel first. It was a little clay bird, shaped a bit weird, but it was beautiful nonetheless, with its white surface gleaming. She studied the bird closely as Jess and Max unwrapped their parcels. Jess gasped as a beautiful gold chain slid into her palm, a dark ruby embedded in a small pendent hanging from the middle of the chain. "Oh, I am so wearing this, everyday." Jess announced as Max examined his little white clay spider.

"Hm, looks like you've got a secret admirer, Moonshine." Max said sarcastically, using Jess's hippie nickname, while he threw his spider in the bin. "Hey! Why'd you throw it out, Max?" Carly demanded, standing next to him with her arms on her hips. "Oh, did you want the gay piece of shit?" he said, rolling his eyes.

There was a slight scuffle outside, and the trio looked out the kitchen window. The bushes were moving slightly, and muffled sounds were emitted occasionally. Carly leaned out the window to listen more carefully. She could've sworn she heard, "Damnit, Deidara! You almost blew our cover!" She shook her head and listened again. The world seemed deathly quiet now. "Uhm, o-kay…" Carly mumbled, coming back into the kitchen and shutting the window behind her.

She looked back at Max. "Maxie Bear, you get that clay spider out of that bin right now! It's a work of art, you should appreciate it!" Carly argued, pointing at the little bin. Max rolled his eyes and picked it up again. "There. If you like it so much, YOU keep it." he said, handing it too her. "FINE. I will." Carly said, taking the spider in her hand. She picked up her clay bird and stormed out of the kitchen. Jess and Max could here her running up the stairs and heard her slam her door closed.

Jess smirked. "Maxie Bear?" she said in an unbelieving tone. "Long story." Max said. "I have time." Max sighed. "Well, I don't." And with that, Max walked upstairs as well and disappeared into his room. Jess snorted, and walked out to the living room. She flopped down onto the couch and turned on the TV, switching through the channels, finally settling on Futurama. She began watching intently as Professor Franzworth began telling the Planet Express team about his 'good news'.

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Carly was silently walking around her room, dressed all in black. She was planning on sneaking out and throwing away the clay bird and the clay spider before Deidara decided to blow them up. _"They must want something with Jess, if they gave her a necklace and Max and I exploding clay objects… That was Itachi and Deidara in the bushes that time, and I'm pretty sure other members of Akatsuki were there, too…"_

Carly continued with her thoughts for another few minutes, then picked up the clay objects and stuffed them in her kunai pouch. After checking she had everything she needed for a possible battle, Carly climbed out the window and started jumping through the trees, trying to get as far away from the house as possible. As she expected, she heard muffled footsteps following her, but they were so quiet, she had to strain to hear them. Then suddenly she heard very quiet whispers.

"Deidara, say it, now!"

"No! Let's just capture her instead!"

"Why ever won't you say the command?!"

"Goddamnit, Itachi, I just won't, okay? Now leave me alone and let's get this girl."

"Deidara, are you actually falling for this girl, just because she defended your crappy clay birds?"

"Sasori-danna! Please?"

"What?"

"Can we just capture her, and _not_ kill her?"

"I'm for it. As long as she converts to my religion."

"Hidan, we're not keeping her."

"Kisame, you always say that."

"That's because I mean it."

Carly couldn't help but snigger quietly. It seemed the arguing Akatsuki heard her though. She stopped jumping through the trees. Taking the clay objects from her pouch she held them out in front of her.

"Nice art, Deidara-san. Perfect for a quick ending." she said on the spot, wondering if she'd get a reaction. Nothing happened. "Oh please. C'mon, I know you guys are there. I could hear you a mile away." Carly smiled.

Suddenly, Deidara seemed to morph out of the tree in front of her. It seemed he was trying to hold in a smirk. Four other men in Akatsuki robes came almost immediately after. "Gombawa, Itachi-san, Kisame-san, Sasori-san and Hidan-san." Carly greeted sweetly.

You could almost see the shock on their faces when she said their names. Carly barely noticed. "Oh please. You boys were being so loud, I could hear you talking to each other, so I picked up your names. I also picked up that you want to take me captive. I want to know _why_." she demanded, not bothering to beat around the bush.

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**Well, I was bored, so I decided to add in a bit of spice. Hope you guys all enjoy the fact that the Akatsuki are now a part of A Change of Scenery. Remember, read, favourite and review, please! Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	13. WTF? Akatsuki?

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Uhm, yeah. I've finally been able to begin this chapter. And I know I forgot to add 'un' to the end of Deidara's sentences in the last chapter. Now, let's get started, shall we?

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:**

Jinchuuriki - Human demon host

Kekkin Genkai - Bloodline trait

Sempai - Senior / person of higher rank, but not highest

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Carly gave a questioning look to the five dumbfounded men standing about ten metres away from her. Then she rolled her eyes, leaning on the tree next to her. Before she could though, a kunai shot past and grazed her shoulder. Eyeing the cut in her skin, she raised a brow. "That's a bit hasty, don't you think?" she asked.

Deidara yawned. "Let's just get this over and done with, shall we?" Carly proposed. "I'll come nicely, if you tell me what you want with me." Kisame raised an eyebrow. "She seems different, compared to the profile we got. Different hair and eyes, even. Are you sure this is the right girl?" Kisame whispered to Itachi. "No, this must be her roommate. Still, she knows we're here now, she we'll just have to take her anyway." he whispered back. "Sasori. Deidara. You take care of this girl. We'll go get the Jinchuuriki."

Deidara seemed taken back. "This isn't the one we're meant to get?" Sasori looked over at him. "Of course not. You didn't analyze properly, Deidara."

Carly narrowed her eyes. _"They're after a Jinchuuriki. Could it be Naruto?"_ she thought. She was so deep in thought trying to remember all the Jinchuuriki in Konoha, that she didn't notice Deidara place one of his hands into a pouch at his side. She came out of her reverie a little too late though, because when she did, she noticed that Deidara, Itachi, Kisame and Hidan were no where in sight. "Damnit!" she whispered profusely, looking around her, and only spotting Sasori, leaning against a tree, looking bored. "Hurry up, Deidara. I hate to be kept waiting." he said to an invisible Deidara.

It all happened too quickly, so Carly had no idea how she had ended up pressed against the tree next to her, with Deidara in front of her, holding her hands above her head. "Well, well, don't go too deep into thought, un. You might be surprised." he said, securing some sort of explosive clay rope around her wrists. "Now, be a good little girl and come quietly, un. We wouldn't you to lose your dainty little hands, would we?"

Carly scowled. "If you hadn't have gotten me in this position, I'd show you just how rough this _little girl's _hands are!" she threatened. Deidara just smirked. "Oh well, guess we'll have to wait for that, un." Deidara let go of her hands. Carly immediately tried to test the strength of the rope, and felt it tighten painfully, making her wince. She tried to hide it, but to no avail, and received another smirk from Deidara. Scowling, she followed him to Sasori, and the three began to head back to the house, Sasori in the lead, and Deidara taking up the rear.

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Jess had just walked into her room after having a shower, a towel wrapped closely around her body, when someone stuck their head around the door. Screaming, "PERVERT!" Jess punched them in the face, sending them flying into the staircase banister, breaking it, the person falling down onto the stairs below. Luckily for said person, Jess' room was near the landing, so they only fell about a foot. "Ow! Tobi is a good boy, so why punch Tobi?" said the person, and Jess glowered at them, the slammed the door shut. "Pervert! What the fuck were you thinking, going into my room!? Into this house, even!?" she screamed at him through the wooden surface of her door. Tobi just scratched his head.

Max had heard the commotion from his room, and had raced into the hallway. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked the mask wearing man. "I'm Tobi!" Tobi said happily. "Tobi's a good boy!" he repeated, striking a good boy pose. Max was thoroughly surprised, and shocked. What happened next confused him extremely.

"Tobi, we told you to be discreet. Now the two members of the house know that we're here, and you've ruined our stealth attack." said a man. Max thought he looked more like a giant tree, rather than a man though, because of the large venus-trap thing around his head. His head it self was split in two colours, the left side being black, the right being white. Two piercing, amber orbs gazed at Max, while his moss green hair sat tousled on his head.

"Sempai, is that other girl really the Jinchuuriki? She seems to have enough chakra already! She punched Tobi!" said a sullen, mask wearing man. Zetsu inwardly thanked Jess for doing something everyone had wanted to do for a long time. But of course, his left half decided to disagree. "She should've kicked him, instead." it whispered to the right half.

Max noticed the split personality and started stepping back to his room, hoping the two strange persons in the hallway wouldn't notice. But his first step back proved unsuccessful. As soon as he stepped back, he ran into someone standing behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a glimpse of blazing orange hair and several piercings. Max inwardly shivered. This dude freaked him out. It wasn't his piercings, or his hair, but his eyes. His eyes, which possessed the Rinnangan. But of course, Max didn't know that Pein possessed a kekkin genkai. And he found his hands being bound roughly with a rope.

Max heard the door open. "Shit!" he shouted. "Carly, don't come in, it's a trap!" Then in came a man with short, unruly red hair and a man with long-ish blond hair, followed closely by a girl with white clay around her wrists. Carly. "Shit!" he shouted again. Carly glanced at him and the other Akatsuki members in the room, a fleeting glance of a smile visible when she saw the state the staircase was in. "I'm guessing Jess punched someone?" she asked. Max nodded. "Sounded like it. Carly, who are these guys?"

Carly scowled at Deidara, who had tensed visibly after hearing Max's voice. "They're Akatsuki. Highly dangerous missing ninja who have fled their hidden village, and broken all ties with them." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, and continued scowling at Deidara. He didn't notice her however; all his attention was focused solely on Max. "That's the one who didn't like my art, un..." he whispered under his breath. Carly gave him a look, one that said, 'You've _got_ to be kidding me'.

Deidara looked over his shoulder at Carly. "You don't seriously live with him, do you?" he asked. She nodded, adding, "Unfortunately" to her confirmation. Max just stared at her. "Carly, what the fuck?! Are you friends with these freaks or something?" Pein clamped a hand over his mouth. "We don't have time with this. Tobi, get the Jinchuuriki." Carly just gaped at him. "You mean to say… That _Jess_ is the Jinchuuriki you guys are after?!"

Said Jinchuuriki poked her head out the door, now fully dressed, and glaring warily at all the members of the Akatsuki. Carly looked around too, she could see Deidara, Sasori, Tobi, Zetsu, Pein, Itachi, Kisame, Hidan and Kakuzu. Nearly the entire Akatsuki. Kakuzu seemed very interested in the television. Tobi however, seemed relieved that he didn't have to retrieve Jess from the security of her room, but seemed on edge from the look Jess was giving him.

"Pervert." she mumbled. Tobi looked taken back. "Jess, it's okay, they won't hurt you. I've made a deal with Deidara." Carly shouted up to her friend, holding up her hands to show her the clay around her wrists. Jess just shot her a look that basically said, 'I don't give a shit.'

Carly rolled her eyes. "Deidara, get Tobi away from Jess, otherwise she'll never come out." she suggested. Deidara just nodded. "Tobi, get down here, un!" he ordered. Tobi ran down happily. "Tobi's a good boy, eh, Sempai?" Deidara rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

Tobi happily ran in little circles around Deidara and Carly, Sasori having gone up to inspect the remains of the staircase banister. "You would've thought your mask had cracked, Tobi, with the force she punched you." he stated. Tobi stoped running around, and said with enthusiasm, "Jashin-chan must really like me!"

At this, Hidan cracked Tobi over the head with his fist. "It's Jashin-_sama_ you fucking crackpot!!" he shouted, glaring at the whimpering Tobi. "Wahh! Sorry! Tobi's a good boy!" Tobi cried, waving his hands in front of his face. Kakuzu had stopped looking over the television and had dragged Hidan away from Tobi and the mortified Deidara and Carly. Carly used the diversion as an opportunity to scratch the back of her neck, but in reality, she was actually undoing the clasp of the necklace she always wore, discreetly, dropping it on the floor. Nobody noticed.

Jess rolled her eyes. "Serves the pervert right!" she declared, storming down the stairs. Before she could walk out the door though, she found herself turning around, and her hands being tied together with an invisible thread. "What the hell?" she said, obviously surprised.

Carly eyed Sasori suspiciously, and saw him with his hands up, like he was controlling a puppet. "Damnit, Sasori, stop controlling her with your damn chakra strings." Sasori looked up at her, but she could faintly see the surprise behind his dull brown eyes. He lowered his hands, but Jess' hands were still bound by some invisible cord.

"Are we ready?" said a new voice. Carly looked to the figure standing a little behind Pein, leaning against Max's door. "Yes, let's go." came the reply from Pein. And with that, Jess was picked up bridal style by Kisame and Max was led towards the door like an obedient pony. Deidara went to pick up Carly, like Kisame had picked up Jess, but she gave him a look that suggested he didn't. He disregarded the look, however, and picked her up anyway. Carly glared at him. "I'm quite capable of walking, you know." she said. Deidara smirked. "I know, but I prefer to carry you, un."

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Shikamaru walked up to Team 13's house, and knocked on the door. He was supposed to pick Carly up, so that they could walk up to Hokage Monument together, to meet up with the other members of the KS. KS standing for Konoha Seven. Yes, they had named themselves. Pretty stupid, and childish, but they still did it.

Shikamaru knocked again, after getting no answer the first time. He frowned. This wasn't like Carly to not answer the door. Five minutes of knocking passed, and Sasuke arrived to pick up Jess. "You haven't seen Carly, Jess or Max on the way here have you?" Shikamaru asked Sasuke. "No? Why, aren't they answering the door?" Shikamaru shook his head. "Let's let ourselves in," Sasuke suggested. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind." So the two boys headed out into the backyard, and climbed in through the bathroom window, hoping that one of the girls weren't taking a shower. Or Max, either.

When they entered, no one was in the bathroom. They walked out, and checked Max's room first. No Max. They checked Carly's room. No Carly. Then they walked down the hall to check Jess' room, and found the staircase banister broken. Giving Shikamaru a look, Sasuke opened the door to find… No Jess. "Damn, where are they?" they both asked. Shikamaru walked downstairs into the living room. He spied something shiny on the floor, near the door. Walking over to it, he looked it over.

"Hey, Shikamaru, what are you looking at?" Sasuke asked, coming to standing beside the Nara boy. "I found Carly's necklace. The one she always wears. She never takes it off." Shikamaru replied, picking up the necklace and standing up. "We have to report this to the Hokage." he said after a while. Sasuke nodded. "Hn. Let's go."

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**Soyeah. We're been kidnapped by the Akatsuki, and Jess is a Jinchuuriki. Who would've guessed? Ahaha. Now what are we going to do? Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	14. Rescue

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Warning, there will be a slight bit of fluff in here, and yeah. -sweat drop- Well, people get rescued in this chapter. So, I hope you enjoy it? It's also gonna be really long. I'm aiming at about 5,000 words or more.

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:**

Ne - Hey

Jinchuuriki - Human demon host

Gomen - Sorry

Gomen-nasai - I'm so sorry

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"Ne, Deidara. You know that Max, Jess and I haven't eaten since this time yesterday, right?"

Carly, Jess, Max and the Akatsuki were all siting in trees, having lunch before they continued on. Deidara looked over at her. The two were sitting in a tree, at the back of the group. Jess, Kisame, Max, Itachi, Tobi and Zetsu were in the branch below them, and Sasori, Hidan, Pein, Kakuzu and Konan were in the branch beside them. "Oh yeah," he said. "Here, have mine, un." he offered, holding out a half empty bento box and a pair of chopsticks. "Uh… There are three of us, and we all have our hands bound. How the hell are we supposed to eat? Especially since we're using chopsticks."

Deidara thought about it for a while. "Kisame, feed the Jinchuuriki. Itachi, feed the boy." Deidara looked over at Pein, who had ordered the command. "What about Carly?" he asked, pointing at said person. Carly rolled her eyes. "You feed her." Pein said simply. Carly looked at Deidara defiantly. "No way in HELL is someone feeding me!" she declared. "Do you want to starve?" Deidara asked her. Carly looked over at Jess and Max, both being fed grudgingly by the people assigned to look over them. She looked at Deidara, the determination shining in her eyes. "I don't care."

Deidara laughed. "Well, where as you don't care, I seem to do, un." he said. Using the chopsticks, he playfully tried to force a bit of a rice ball into Carly's tightly closed mouth. Then, an idea struck her. She stood up and walked to the end of the branch, then sat down. This meant she was now about one to two metres away from Deidara, and far away from his chopsticks. She poked her tongue out at from across the distance. Deidara poked out three tongues in return. Then they both started laughing, while the people below either sighed, shook their heads, or became quite shocked at seeing that Deidara had three mouths. AKA, Jess and Max.

After everyone finished eating (Carly had managed to eat a rice ball with her hands, under the constant insistence from Deidara that she eat something), Pein started to talk. "We only have another day's worth of travel before we reach our current base. I hope to get there by the designated time. Let's go." Deidara nodded, picked up Carly again, bridal style, and set off among the trees. Kisame had picked up Jess again, and were a little way ahead of Carly and Deidara. Max was still being led by Itachi though, being able to keep up with the older men, despite not being able to use his arms.

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"Are you sure?" Tsunade asked. "We believe so. The house is abandoned, the staircase partly destroyed, and I found Carly's necklace on the floor." said Shikamaru, raising the silver chain to Tsunade's eye level, the amethyst dragon and emerald tear drop shining in the light. Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Carly never takes this particular necklace off." Sasuke added. "Well, I would suggest checking the house again. I'll send a group of genin and Iruka with you. I'll call them up now." she said with a frown.

She leaned behind her desk a pressed a small red button. Two Chuunin arrived shortly after. "Kotetsu, send Iruka and Anko here. Izumo, I want you to bring Team 8, Kurenai too." she ordered. "Yes, Hokage-sama." Both Chuunin left as soon as they arrived.

Five minutes passed, and there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" Tsunade called. The door was opened and Iruka stepped. "Ah, Iruka. You haven't seen your squad lately, have you?" Tsunade asked. Iruka shook his head. "Not since training yesterday, no. May I ask why?" Tsunade shook her head. "Not yet, we'll wait for everyone else to arrive."

Another few minutes passed and there was another knock at the door. "Come in!" Tsunade called again. The door opened again, and this time, in came Team 8, Kurenai, and Anko. "Finally, everyone's here." Tsunade announced, sitting on the front of her desk. "Alright, time to tell you all why you are here." she began.

"Nara Shikamaru and Uchiha Sasuke have told me that Team 13, otherwise known as Yama Carly, Kikuchi Jess, and Nishimura Max, are missing, or have been kidnapped." Hinata gasped, Shino looked unfazed, and Kiba gritted his teeth. "Now, we are unsure of the situation, but I want Anko, Kiba, Shikamaru, Sasuke and Iruka to search the house, top to bottom to find any clue to where they might be. Kurenai, Hinata and Shino, you three are to search the town, to maybe find a trace of them there. I want you to work on this immediately. Go." she finished with a flick of her wrist. Everybody left at once.

With Iruka in the lead, the main group split up from the smaller one, and headed for the house of Team 13. Once they arrived, Iruka went to insert the key, but Sasuke just walked past, pushed the door open and walked inside. "The door was unlocked, this morning." he said simply. Shikamaru nodded, and walked over to the middle of the living room. "This is where I found Carly's necklace." she said, staring at the spot as if it would tell him where she was. "The one she always wears?" Kiba inquired, and received a nod in reply. Anko noticed the staircase. "What the hell happened over there?" she asked, pointing at the broken banister.

Sasuke looked over at it. "I'm guessing Jess was in a foul mood, and she punched someone when they were standing outside her door." he said, walking up stairs and into Jess' room. Anko raised an eyebrow. "You sure picked a fierce one, then." None saw it, because he was in Jess' room, but Sasuke's usually pale skin turned a faint shade of pink. "Hn." was all that was heard from the usually emotionless Uchiha.

Shikamaru sighed, moving from the place that was causing him so much worry. "I'm going to go check her room." he said, of course meaning Carly. Everyone had noticed that he hadn't said his trademark words since she had gone missing.

Walking up to her room, Shikamaru sighed again. _'She's so troublesome, getting herself into a drag like this, but I can't help but miss her. It's like I want to protect her from anyone and anything.'_ he thought to himself. He opened her door for the second time that day. He looked around the familiar room. He used to come to the house often since the sleepover party, as Sasuke had with Jess. He didn't really know much about Max. Heck, nobody even knew his jutsu type. But he was still a friend, and worried about him, just like he worried about Jess, although he worried about Carly the most.

She was just so like him in everyway. Lazy, bored, a daydreamer, and smart. Just not as smart as him. He faintly remembers her telling him that her IQ was something around 130. That was pretty good for a girl her age.

He was snapped out of his musings by a curtain flapping in the wind, alerting him to a note that was tacked to the wall behind it. He hadn't noticed it before, because there hadn't been any breeze coming through the open window before, but now it shook him that there would be a note there at all. Carly may not be organized sometimes, but she definitely hated sticking stuff to her walls.

He walked over to the note, tore it off the wall and began to read. His face quickly paled, and he raced out the room, shouting, "Guys, I found it, I know who kidnapped them!"

Anko, Iruka and Kiba snapped their heads away from the various places they had been looking, and Sasuke came out of Jess' room rather hurriedly, coming down stairs to stand with the rest of the people. Shikamaru read the note aloud.

"_If you are reading this, you have probably noticed that we are missing._

_Today, three parcels arrived at our doorstep. One for Jess, one for Max, and one for me._

_Jess was given a tracking device, located in a necklace. Max and I were given exploding clay animals._

_Shikamaru, if you are reading this, you probably know what this means._

_The Akatsuki are here in Konoha, and they want Jess. It seems obvious that they want Max and I out of the picture as soon as possible._

_I know it might well be the end of me, but I am going out to try and confront the enemy._

_I love you truly, Shika-kun, and Jess feels the same for Sasuke. Max, I'm not sure, but be sure to tell Hinata this, she has been a bit close with him lately._

_I am going to give you a bit of information. I think I know where the Akatsuki base is at the moment. If I am still alive, do not ask me where I acquired such information, because I cannot tell you. All I know, is that they have a cave situated somewhere in the Land of Rain, between Konoha and Suna._

_Search for us there._

_Signed, Carly."_

The whole group looked at each other silently, then, without a word, raced to the Hokage Tower.

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It was nightfall, and the Akatsuki decided to get some rest for the night. They hadn't slept in a few days, apparently, and desperately needed some shut eye. Looking around the foliage, certain members of the Akatsuki were searching for etiquette areas to sleep in without being seen, heard or noticed, while Carly was handing out rations to the others.

After promising Deidara she wouldn't run away, and Deidara in turn practically begging Pein, Carly had been allowed a certain privilege. She was allowed to have her hands free of bindings. She was still bound, in a way. Bound by her promise, and the exploding clay bracelet on her wrist. So, Carly had become self appointed care-taker of the Akatsuki for the time being. And they gratefully accepted it. In reality, they were just a bunch of misunderstood softies, though she would never really say that out loud, only vaguely hinting at it to Deidara, whom she was getting along with quite well.

"Hey, Carly, un. Are you going to eat too?" Deidara asked, noting that the girl currently sitting to his right didn't have any food. "Uh, no, not really…" Carly said hesitantly, looking at the spinnach miso soup in the middle of the self-formed circle. Deidara looked a little worried. "Are you serious? You hardly ate at all during lunch, un. Not to mention that you said that you hadn't eaten since that time the day before, un." he reasoned. Carly shook her head, leaning in close to Deidara. "The truth is, I don't really appreciate the way my best friends are being treated. I'm basically being treated like a friend, while Jess is being called, "Jinchuuriki" all the time, plus her hands _and_ feet are bound all the time, and Kisame has to feed her. Not to mention I think she's terrified of sharks." she whispered in his ear.

"And then there's Max. He's been quiet during the whole trip, trying to figure out a way to get us out of this, alive. I've told him to stop, and that's there is no way that any of us are going to come out of this unscathed, particularly Jess, and he just shook his head, and turned away from me." she continued. "He's starting to act cold to me, Deidara, like I've betrayed him. Which, in a way, I have…" she mumbled off, then slouched back into her previous expression.

Deidara looked up at the stars. He was about to say something, but was cut off by Hidan, who just came back from securing the sleeping quarters for the night. "Oi, bitch, gimme some food, I'm fucking hungry."

Deidara glared at Hidan, but Carly just stood up to prepare the Jashin worshiper's meal. "Carly, you don't have--" he began, but Carly stopped him from saying any more, by placing a delicate finger over his lips. She blushed a bit, but turned away, and served Hidan some soup, which he accepted with a rough, "'Bout time", before she walked away to stand a few metres from the group.

Deidara walked over to Carly. "C'mon, you must be tired, un. It's nearly midnight." he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She smiled at him wearily. Pein overheard them slightly. "That's a good idea. Everyone, bed, now!" he ordered, and the Akatsuki quickly and efficiently cleaned up around the clearing and headed for the trees, Kisame and Itachi bringing their charges with them.

Deidara cleared the ground of twigs, and Carly lay down on her stomach, her eyelids feeling heavy the moment her head hit the surprisingly soft grass. She looked over at Deidara once more, and saw him lean against a nearby tree, with apparently no intention of going to sleep. She gave him a confused look, which he answered. "Well, someone's got to keep watch over you, to make sure that nobody tries to run off with you while everybody's asleep, un." he said with a shrug. Carly smiled, and closed her eyes, instantly falling asleep. Deidara watched her for a few minutes, before turning his gaze to the star-strewn sky.

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Jess was lying on her side, facing her back to her shark-like captor. She got the freedom of being able to move her hands and feet freely while sleeping, but the drawback was that one of her hands was tied by rope to the left hand of her sleeping captor, the one they had called, 'Kisame', or something. She was about to close her eyes and try to go to sleep too, when she sensed a familiar chakra signature.

She sat up slowly, so as not to wake Kisame, and searched for Sasuke, her eyes frantically darting here and there, desperately trying to find him. Life as a captive was hard, well, at least for Jess it was. Carly seemed to be treated perfectly fine, while Max… Well, Max was being withdrawn lately. He almost seemed to be… Pouting, in a way. Suddenly, her eyes caught a flash of pale skin and dark hair, before it disappeared. Her heart leapt with joy, knowing that Sasuke was here to rescue her. It sounded corny, but it was the truth. A kunai hit the ground beside her, cutting the rope through. Sasuke jumped down, picked her up, and jumped out of the shrubbery to a clearing a bit away.

"Sasuke!" she finally managed to say after a while. He smirked at her, giving her a quick kiss. "I wouldn't leave you alone for long." he said. Jess smiled happily, and finally noticed the other ninja in the clearing.

She saw Kiba, Shino, Neji, Lee, Tenten, Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, Anko, Kakashi, Sakura and Shizune in the clearing. She also saw Max a bit of in the distance, embracing a trembling Hinata. Suddenly, she tensed. "Where's Carly?" she asked franticly. Sasuke hugged her. "Don't worry, Shikamaru's getting her now. I'm actually surprised they didn't station any guards around. They're usually much better prepared for this." he said reassuringly.

He just hoped that he was right.

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Shikamaru was racing through the trees. Max and Jess had been rescued, now it was Carly's turn. He stopped in his place when he saw her. She was lying peacefully on her side, sleeping, an Akatsuki cloak thrown over her to protect her from the coldness. A slightly older boy with long, blonde hair sat on watch nearby, probably the owner of the cloak.

Shikamaru cursed to himself. It seemed Carly was better guarded then the other two, for some reason, even though her note had said that Jess was the one wanted. He quickly thought up a plan. He moved through the trees quietly, hiding his chakra signature as he went. Sitting in a place that the blonde haired Akatsuki member wouldn't see him, Shikamaru was now sitting almost directly in front of him.

Shikamaru raised a kunai to almost eye level, and threw it at the boy, hitting him squarely in the chest, right where his heart should be. Shikamaru smirked inwardly. Then the boy disappeared, and in his place was a log of wood. Substitution jutsu. Shikamaru's eyes widened, when he felt a kunai blade pressed against his throat. Whoever it was put a bit of pressure on the top of his neck, urging him to stand. Shikamaru slowly obeyed.

"Whatever you're here for, leave now, without it, un." said the stranger. Shikamaru clenched his fists painfully. "I'm not leaving without her." he said in a tone that suggested he wasn't leaving anytime soon. Shikamaru cast a quick glance over at the sleeping Carly, who now happened to have her back to the pair.

The stranger noticed this, and his grip tightened on the kunai against Shikamaru's throat. "Tell me what you want with Carly, un." he said through gritted teeth. Shikamaru seemed almost surprised when the stranger dropped the kunai from his neck and appeared in front of him with surprising speed, but even more surprised that the stranger knew who Carly was.

Down below, Carly was slowly waking up. It was a few hours before dawn, and Carly always had trouble sleeping around this time. So she had grown accustomed to waking up at this time. She opened her eyes blearily, then raised a hand to wipe the sleep away from her eyes. As she did so, the clay bracelet on her wrist rubbed against her cheek, reminding her of Deidara. That's when she realized that Deidara wasn't sitting next to her anymore.

"Dei?" Carly called, sitting up. She heard someone landing on the ground, and then footsteps heading in her direction. Turning to see who it was, she saw Deidara running towards her, before he scooped her up in his arms, his Akatsuki cloak wrapped firmly around her. "Dei, what's going on?" she asked him quickly. "People are here to try and rescue you; I've got to let the other Akatsuki members know, because we can't afford to lose the Jinchu… We can't afford to lose Jess, un." he explained, running to where the majority of the Akatsuki were.

Carly's eyes widened, and she looked behind Deidara. She saw Shikamaru running to keep up. "Shika-kun!" she gasped, looking back at Deidara. Deidara looked down at her, confusion settling on his face. "You know him?" he asked. Carly nodded weakly. "H-he's my boyfriend…" she muttered.

Deidara nearly dropped her, stopping quickly on a tree branch above the other Akatsuki. He dropped her harshly on the branch, and held a kunai to her neck. He turned to face Shikamaru. "Leave now, or I'll slit her throat, un." he commanded to him, holding Carly firmly against his body. "Gomen, Carly, it's just for appearances…" Deidara whispered to her quietly. Carly was still terrified though; she had never seen him act this hostile to her before.

It seemed to have the desired effect on Shikamaru though, for he instantly stopped where he was, and Carly could see that his skin had paled considerably. Carly's note seemed to come back into his mind as he looked over the predicament.

'_It seems obvious that they want Max and I out of the picture as soon as possible.'_

He looked over at Carly and saw she looked scared, more scared then she had ever been in her life, for a silent tear slid down her face. He just wanted to run over to her, hold her close and whisper comforting words to her. But he couldn't. That boy would kill her if he came another step forward. So, without having any other choice, he turned around and ran back into the trees, wanting to get back to the others as fast as possible.

Deidara dropped the kunai as soon as the boy disappeared into the trees. He turned to Carly and hugged her. "Gomen-nasai, un…" he whispered to her, noticing she was crying, and wrapped his arms around her more securely. "It'll all turn out alright, un. I promise." he said, and she turned around to face him. Her eyes glistened with tears, and Deidara moved his hand up to her neck, pulling her closer to him. She continued crying silently, her face pressing into his neck, while her fists clutched at the soft material of his shirt.

Soon, her crying ceased, and her body became a little limp in Deidara's arms. Worried, he picked her up, and looked at her face. She was sleeping. Breathing a sigh of relief, and made sure she was comfortable, wrapping his Akatsuki cloak closer about her frame, then jumped to the ground. He walked over to Tobi and kicked him. "Tobi, wake everyone up, now, un." he ordered, and the boy happily obliged. "DEIDARA-SEMPAI SAYS WAKE UP!!" he shouted gleefully, as people began to groan and glare at the two standing above them. Deidara had turned around and gently pressed Carly's head into his chest as Tobi had screamed out, so that she wouldn't wake up. Her brows furrowed, but she didn't wake up, only tightening her grip on Deidara's shirt.

"Deidara, what is the fucking meaning of this!? The fucking sun still isn't up yet, and you bastards had to wake us up!" Hidan demanded, standing up from his sleeping position. Kisame then spoke up. "We've just slept through a surprise rescue." he announced, the frayed rope dangling from his wrist. Itachi glared at a tree, where several ropes had been expertly cut, as if trying to find Max among the remains. Deidara turned back around, a determined look on his face. "Well, I looked after my charge, un." he said defensively.

Kisame and Itachi glared at him, while Pein looked almost furious. "Kisame!" he bellowed, making the shark man flinch. "You allowed the Jinchuuriki to escape!" Kisame tried to defend himself. "They used a kunai to cut the rope, Leader-sama! It must have all happened extremely fast for no one to notice!"

Pein just glowered at him, and Kisame backed down at once. The other members of the Akatsuki seemed to be glad that they hadn't been asked to look after the captives.

Pein shifted his gaze over to Deidara and the sleeping Carly. "Where were you when this happened, Deidara?" he asked warily. Deidara blushed slightly. "I was sitting next to Carly while she slept, watching to make sure she didn't run away, when I sensed an unfamiliar chakra signature not far away, un. I used a substitution jutsu and hid in the foliage in front. It seemed it was a boy from Konoha, looking for Carly and her team mates, un. He saw us, and devised a plan. He snuck up in front of my clone and the sleeping Carly, which was coincidentally not far from where I was hiding, un. He threw a kunai at my clone, which revealed itself to be a log of wood. I then pressed a kunai to his throat, asked him some questions, and Carly woke up, un. I immediately jumped down, picked her up, and ran off, with the Konoha ninja tailing us. She recognized him as her boyfriend, so I used her as bait to get rid of the boy. Then we came here to get you guys, un." he quickly explained, purposefully leaving out the details on what happened after Shikamaru ran off.

Pein raised an eyebrow and pointed at the sleeping Carly. "Then why is she asleep?" Deidara blushed a darker shade. "Ahh… She fell unconscious in shock, un." he said quickly. Pein raised an eyebrow, but shook his head and decided not to ask.

Their 'conversation' was suddenly broken when a kunai shot through the foliage and embedded itself in Deidara's chest. He grunted in pain, falling to his knees, though his grip on Carly never loosened. Carly woke up upon hearing his grunt however, and her eyes widened at the sight of the kunai between her hands, embedding in Deidara's chest. "Dei!" she gasped, looking at his face. His eyes where glazed in pain as he looked where the kunai had come from. She followed his gaze to meet the people she never thought she'd see again: Her friends from Konoha.

Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Neji, Lee, Tenten, Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, Anko, Kakashi, Shizune, Sakura, Sasuke, Jess, Max and Shikamaru looked down at her, their determination scaring her slightly. She trembled as Deidara pulled the kunai from his chest, throwing it to the ground in disgust. He placed Carly carefully on the ground, muttering, "I'll be fine, I promise, un." as he reached into the clay pouch at his side. He looked over at the 17 shinobi they were to face. Deidara stood up, and would have gone into battle, but Pein decided to interfere.

He walked up to Carly and simply hit her over the head, probably with a bit more force then necessary, knocking her unconscious in an instant. Deidara looked stunned. "W-what was that for!?" he accused. "She'd try and stop us if we tried to kill her friends, so it was necessary." he replied with no emotion. Deidara gritted his teeth, but nodded in understanding.

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The battle between Akatsuki and the rescue squad had raged on for hours, and it was now an hour past dawn. Carly still hadn't woken up out of the depths of consciousness yet, and Deidara had been close to losing her to the boy he now knew to be called Shikamaru. He was currently battling the two tai-jutsu specialists, Lee and Jess, as well as Tenten, the weapons specialist. Deidara saw Shikamaru's shadow jutsu approach from behind out of the corner of his eye, and jumped up and over Tenten, making him capture her, by accident. Just as he went to pick up Carly, and run off with her, Deidara threw two shuriken at him, pinning him to the tree behind. His shadow jutsu cancelled out, and Tenten started hurling daggers, shuriken and kunai at him. He dodged most of them, a kunai nicking his shoulder as he began to block kicks and punches from Jess and Lee.

Feeling frustrated, he summoned a couple of clones to deal with the three trying to attack him non-stop, and ran over to Carly. He picked her up with ease, dodged another weapon thrown at him, and ran into the foliage, leaving the other 9 members of the Akatsuki to deal with the 17 shinobi. He knew they could handle it.

Deidara slowed down once he came to a cave. He walked in quickly, and to his surprise, found it quite nice. It was large, warm, and had a small skylight in the centre of the spacious area. He wandered over to the back of the cave, and sat down, placing Carly down gently on his lap. Cradling her, Deidara softly brushed some stray hair away from her face and noticed the bruise around her temple, where Pein had knocked her out.

While Deidara was off in thought, Carly began to rouse. She opened her eyes gingerly, feeling a throbbing pain near her temple. She reached to place her hand there, and bumped Deidara out of his thoughts. "Oh, Carly, you're awake!" he said, surprised. Carly stared at him. What she said next almost crushed him.

"Who are you?"

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**Okay, who saw that coming? Let's have a raise of hands! lolz. I doubt anyone foresaw that; I was surprised myself. But hey, stuff happens. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


	15. Amnesia

**A Change of Scenery**

A:N // Okay, here we ago, the fifteenth chapter for A Change of Scenery. Now, to a darker note. I'm only planning on typing another 10 or so chapters for this story. Sorry. There will be a sequel though, and man, you will be so surprised. Honestly. Andyeah. Even more DeiCarly fluff. P

**Japanese Lingo in this chapter:**

Ne - Hey

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"Who are you?" Carly repeated. Deidara was shocked. "Y-you don't remember me? At all?" he asked, worry evident in his voice. Carly shook her head, and at once regretted the decision, her hand making its way to her temple. She felt a large bump there, and knew that it must be bruised. "What am I doing here?" she asked, looking up at the man whose lap she was sitting in. "Where _is_ here?" she paused for a second before continuing. "And who am I?"

Deidara was shocked. So shocked, he couldn't speak. She didn't know who she was. She didn't remember him, she didn't remember anything. He shook his head. _'Try and think positively about this situation, Deidara. You don't want to freak the girl out.'_ he thought to himself. Well, at least she doesn't remember the spiky headed kid. Deidara inwardly smiled. Then he mentally kicked himself. _'What the hell did I mean by that? I'm not jealous that she's dating someone else, am I?'_

Looking down at the curious girl, he gave a small smile. "I am Deidara, un." he said. "You're name is Carly. Leader hit you to knock you out, and it seems you've developed amnesia, un." Carly hadn't listened to most of it, though. As soon as the name, 'Deidara' slipped from his lips, a few memories had come flitting back into her mind.

'_Deidara dropped the kunai as soon as the boy disappeared into the trees. He turned to Carly and hugged her. "Gomen-nasai, un…" he whispered to her, noticing she was crying, and wrapped his arms around her more securely. "It'll all turn out alright, un. I promise." he said, and she turned around to face him. Her eyes glistened with tears, and Deidara moved his hand up to her neck, pulling her closer to him. She continued crying silently, her face pressing into his neck, while her fists clutched at the soft material of his shirt.'_

As she snapped out of her reverie, she looked up to see the man called Deidara looking at her worriedly. Glancing back down, with a blush settling on her face, she quietly said, "I… I remember a bit about you… I think?" She looked back up, and saw Deidara smiling. "What about me?" he asked. "Uhm, I was crying, and you were comforting me?" she said, her face screwed up, trying to remember the faint memory. Deidara blushed as he remembered as well, but gave Carly a hug, snuggling into her neck, as she had down not so long ago. Carly just hugged him back, knowing he was the key to regaining her memories.

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Shikamaru cursed as they were forced to withdraw, and leave without Carly. Sasuke looked at him, his look one of sympathy. It would seem that Jess had started to rub off on him. Shikamaru sighed as they headed back to Konoha, and wasn't looking forward to reporting this to the Hokage with Anko and Kakashi.

The Akatsuki watched them leave, cursing that they couldn't get to the Jinchuuriki. They looked around themselves and noticed that Deidara and Carly had gone. It was almost midday. "Where the fuck is Deidara?" Hidan asked, looking around the now destroyed clearing. Weapons littered the ground, and there were a few craters here and there. Hidan was covered in blood from his various self-inflicted wounds, but apart from that, everyone looked okay. "Yes, where is Deidara? I haven't seen him for a while, come to think of it." Konan said. As she was speaking, she pulled a sheet of paper out of her hair, folding it into a butterfly. A single hand sign, and it was alive, fluttering around the clearing, before disappearing into the trees.

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Deidara woke up slowly, but decided against opening his eyes. He tightened his grip slightly on the form sleeping next to him. He had his arm slung over Carly's waist, and snuggled into her back, wanting to go back to sleep.

A cough was suddenly heard, and Deidara instantly tensed. He opened his eye a fraction, and what he saw almost gave him a heart attack. Konan was standing above the two, a look of surprise, boredom and impatience in her eyes.

"You're awake." Konan voiced. Deidara opened his eyes fully with a groan. "Unfortunately, un." he muttered, sitting up. His Akatsuki cloak fell off the two as he stood up, but he instantly covered Carly up again, to keep her warm. He walked over to Konan. "Don't tell the others about this, un. Please?" he begged, not wanting to hear Hidan's opinion on the situation. Konan raised an eyebrow. "I'll have to tell Pein." she said, emotionless as always. Deidara sighed in defeat. Pein had to know _everything_.

Konan then saw something on Carly that made her eyes narrow. "What do you think you are doing?" she hissed at Deidara, making him jump. "What do you mean?" he asked, backing up a bit. Konan pointed behind him, at the sleeping Carly. Deidara noticed that her Suna headband, which was situated around her neck, was visible, and the large slash through the symbol was quite visible as well.

Deidara rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, Akatsuki needs someone to look after the base, and to cook meals, and she can't really go anywhere else, un." he mumbled. Konan looked the tiniest bit confused, but shrugged it aside. "What do you mean, 'she can't go anywhere else'? She'll want to go back to her village, to her friends." she questioned. Deidara sighed. "When Pein knocked her out… She kinda of forgot everything, un. She's got amnesia. There's that, and the fact that she told me she didn't want to go back to Leaf or Sand, un."

Konan still looked against the subject. That was, of course, until Deidara brought up something else. "Well, if she joined, you wouldn't be the only girl anymore, un." Konan softened up a bit. "Fine. I'll ask Pein about it. Happy?" she asked in annoyance. Deidara nodded his head, a smile appearing on his face. Konan looked over at the girl. "She's beginning to wake up. I suggest you get her quickly, and meet me outside. You've been missing for a while."

Deidara nodded, and turned around to greet the sleepy girl. He smirked, knowing she was doing exactly the same thing he had a few minutes before. "C'mon Carly, time to get up, un."

He heard her breathing become more irregular, as much as he knew she was trying to calm it. Laughing softly, he took his Akatsuki cloak off Carly, slipping it back around his shoulders, doing the buttons up quickly, expertly. "Are you up yet?" he asked, and this time received an answer. "No."

Deidara smirked, moving around behind her, and then he slung his arm around Carly's waist, pulling her to her feet. She groaned, and opened her eyes. That's when she saw Konan.

Looking afraid, confused, and curious, all at the same time (( I'm talented like that -smirk- )), she inclined her head to the stranger, and shot Deidara a questioning look. "Carly, this is Konan. She's part of the Akatsuki, un." Deidara explained, his arm not leaving Carly's waist. Luckily for them, Konan didn't notice, because she had already turned around, and was now standing at the entrance to the cave that they were currently residing in.

Deidara nudged his head in the general direction of the cave entrance, and began to lead Carly towards it. Feeling content, she obliged, removing Deidara's hand from her waist, only to wind her fingers through his.

The two instantly parted though, once they saw who was waiting for them outside the cave. It seems the remaining Akatsuki didn't want to wait for Konan to come back to the clearing, and so they had followed her, and waited outside the cave they assumed she had ventured into. Carly was looking around with curiosity at the men standing before her, but Deidara on the other hand, was blushing madly, because it seems that the men had seen the affection between the two.

Deidara's blush only seemed to darken, if possible, when Kisame looked over at him, smirking. Konan had gone over to talk with Pein, dragging a surprised Carly along with her, so Kisame and the rest of the Akatsuki sauntered up to Deidara, Kisame looking very smug. "Deidara, care to explain what went on in that cave, last night? I mean, we knew you were close, but not that close." he said with a smirk.

Deidara looked horrified. "W-We didn't do t-that!" he stuttered, waving his hands in front of his face. It was the truth. They didn't do anything remotely like 'that', but that's not to say nothing happened. Deidara's face reached a higher level of red, if that was humanly possible at that point, as he recalled what had happened the night before.

_Flashback_

_Carly was still sitting in Deidara's lap, her arms encircled about his neck. Her head rested on his shoulder, her breathing even, telling Deidara she was asleep. Smiling softly, he picked her up, and laid her down on the ground. Unbuttoning his cloak, he laid down next to her, pulling the cloak over them both, and began nuzzling into Carly's neck. _

_Waking up, she turned to face him. "Um, Deidara?" she asked, almost shyly, while trying to stifle a yawn. "Mm?" came the muffled reply. Deidara had his forehead against Carly's, looking into her eyes. It amazed him how caring and beautiful a pair of brown eyes could be. "W…We were close, weren't we?"_

_Hearing her question, a shadow of a frown could be faintly seen across his face. It instantly disappeared though, and Deidara pulled her long hair from its ponytail, letting it fall gracefully onto his cloak._

_Feeling she wasn't going to get an answer, Carly rolled over, so that she wasn't facing Deidara anymore. Said person began nuzzling her neck again, taking the time to memorize the scent of her hair. "Coconut milk." he said simply. Carly looked at him from over her shoulder. "Pardon?"_

_Deidara smiled. "You're hair… It smells like coconut milk, un." he whispered, wrapping his arms around Carly. "And to answer your question before… We were kinda close, I guess, un. Why do you ask?" Carly thought about it for a while. "Um, I don't know why, but I feel safe with you. It feels like you'll always be there to protect me, to make me happy. Then there's my heart, which flutters every time I look at you, and every time you say my name. But it doesn't feel like a crush. It feels more then a silly infatuation, deeper. Soyeah. I kinda assumed we were close." she finished, not looking at Deidara, a deep blush tinging her slightly tanned cheeks._

_Deidara was the tiniest bit shocked. He had kind of expected it. What kind of hostage lets you flirt with them without shooting you angry glares? Smiling softly, he put his hand on Carly's shoulder. Surprised at the sudden gesture, she rolled over. In that instant, Deidara had decided to take a chance. He didn't even mind if it got him kicked out of Akatsuki._

_Carly had realised that their faces were inching closer together, and didn't mind in the slightest. When their lips finally met, all she could think about was how perfect this seemed, so she kissed back, just as passionately as it was supposed to be. Deidara snaked his arms around her waist, deepening the kiss, and Carly gently ran her hands up his arms, to wind themselves around his neck and in his hair, where her fingers began playing around with a few stray strands._

_End Flashback_

"What the fuck _did_ happen, then?" came the voice of Hidan, reminding Deidara of the topic at hand. "I'm not obliged to tell you!" Deidara retorted, slightly flustered. Kakuzu was making a bet with Sasori, claiming that Deidara had made out with Carly, Kisame was smirking, Itachi looked emotionless, Hidan was scowling, and Tobi was jumping up and down shouting, "Tobi is a good boy!", in a sing-song sort of voice.

Carly had been standing next to Deidara, but was pulled along by Konan towards Pein. "Pein, Deidara wants this girl to join Akatsuki." she said, emotionlessly. Pein looked her over. _'She seems pretty normal. No obvious power, traits, or weapons in sight, and she's pretty young too. Looks about the age of fourteen.'_ Pein thought to himself. Raising an eyebrow, he asked Carly, "If I let you into Akatsuki, how useful would you be?"

Carly paused for minute, thinking over her answer. "If I got into Akatsuki… I could help the group by cooking meals, cleaning up the base, provide stress relief using acupuncture, and be lookout at times, too. Plus, I'm not too bad at gen jutsu, and I was known in Suna for my talent with sebon." she offered, looking up at Pein with a thoughtful look on her face. Pein was thinking hard as well, as he walked over to a nearby tree. He drew a small circle on it, a circle with a diameter of about 1 cm. He walked back over to Carly and Konan.

"Hit that circle with three sebon, simultaneously." he ordered. Carly smirked, making Pein raise his eyebrow again. Pulling out three sebon at random intervals, she through them remarkable fast at the tree. They hit their target a split second later. Walking over to inspect them, Pein and Konan found the three sebon clustered dead centre. "Whatever, you can join." Pein said, walking away. "Akatsuki, let's go. We need to get back to home base." he ordered, not turning around.

Deidara saw that as a opportunity to get away from the questioning stares of the other men, and ran up to stand with Carly, who was smiling happily. "So, what'd he say? Are you in?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "Yes!" she announced, giving Deidara a hug.

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"Ne, Sasuke, Shikamaru. Are you two even listening?"

Both boys were sitting down on the Hokage Monument with Jess, Max, Hinata, Kiba and Naruto, talking about anything that would take their minds off the empty space next to Shikamaru. Jess couldn't stop wondering what the two boys were thinking about when they stared out to space. "Hm, you're both becoming as air headed as Carly." Jess joked, but immediately realized her mistake. Shikamaru was now looking more sullen then usual. "Sorry…" she mumbled, looking at the ground in front of her. That ant seems really interesting right about now.

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**Soyeah. This chapter has 2,553 words in it. Andyeah. I'm bored, and also, I've only got a few ideas left. Any opinions or such you could give me would be much appreciated. And by the way, the next couple of chapters will be mainly fixated on Carly and the Akatsuki. Ja ne! Pebble's Daydream**


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